


Only Way Onward

by deni269



Series: The Walking Deth [2]
Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Cannibalism, Dreams, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-12
Updated: 2014-05-06
Packaged: 2018-01-19 01:28:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 12
Words: 67,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1450222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deni269/pseuds/deni269
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the follow up to my Bethyl/Deth fanfic 'An unexpected journey'.<br/>Part II starts after Beth has been whisked away in a car and Daryl is locked inside a train box car.</p><p>This will be a smut filled adventure story (smut should return by chapter 5).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Companions

**Author's Note:**

> You can read this story without having read my first, if you have seen season 4 of TWD. Just keep in mind that Beth and Daryl have started a sexual relationship, and Beth has recently escaped a rape attempt from a man named Anton.
> 
> *Spoiler alert*  
> Although I have not read the comic book series, I have heard many rumours about what supposedly happens, and my story will be based in some of those rumours. Consider this your warning.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the walking dead. I'm just a fan.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a certain peace you have in knowing what has become of your loved ones.

“This last one, and you’ve got them all.”

His voice was gruff and gentle at the same time, letting a puff of swirling mist escape into the cold air from his mouth as he spoke. I inhaled deeply until my lungs were filled with the chilly air and then let the air seep out through slightly parted lips as I carefully drew my index finger in.

My ears rang from the sound of the shot and my shoulder hurt a little from where the rifle had kicked back as it had several times in the last few minutes, but after hearing the chink of metal against metal and watching the can throttle into the air and land with a gentle thud, discomfort was replaced with a feeling of satisfaction. Seven cans had been perched on top of the gravestones, seven now lay in the dirt, through my seven attempts to shoot them down.

I turned over to Mix to watch his reaction. He was still contently slapping his scraggly tail against the ground. No walkers were approaching – yet.

“You’re an excellent marksman Lil’ Miss Beth. Really don’t think you’re needing my pointers anymore.” David said with a grin that creased the skin around his grey eyes.

“I’ve been givin’ pointers before.” I said, thinking of Daryl. “Although I don’t have that much experience with a huntin' rifle.”

“Oh yeah, what’s your weapon of choice?”

“I’ve tried a few but most recently was taught on a crossbow.”

David raised a curious eyebrow.

“A crossbow eh? Don’t see many of them around.”

“Has the advantage of stealth.”

“I do wonder how arrows would fare against the hide of an animal.”

“It’s all still good, you get your meat pre-skewered.”

We both chuckled.

“Can’t eat tin cans though.” David tipped his head to where the rusted and collapsed cans lay in the dirt.

I strolled the one hundred or so feet over to the line of gravestones and started picking up the cans and replacing them on their perch.

“One more round?” I asked David as he approached behind me.

“Think that’s just about enough for today, don’t need to be tempting fate, and we could save that ammo for a more dire need.”

“Com'on, Mixy is still happy, there are no walkers about.”

David looked cautiously down on the scraggly white furred dog and examined his tail beating on the ground with a gentle thumping. He sighed and then fumbled around in his pocket. I could hear the sharp clinking of metal and then he pulled out his hand and produced three more rifle rounds.

“We’ll make it an even ten, and then that’s it. It’s starting to get dark and I don’t know how much longer our luck will last with them -err –umm- _walkers_.”

* * *

 

The last three had gone down too quickly and disappointment twisted in my chest as I knew it was time to pack it in for the day. I left the cans where they lay in the dirt by the gravestones and turned to follow Mix and David back to the house.

It was the same white funeral home that Daryl and I had come across before. The same one that we thought we might share together, before Anton’s group took me, and before we found Maggie and the others. Even though I was glad we had found Maggie, I still wondered what life would have been like for Daryl and I, if I had never been taken that night.

David, I believed, was a good person, which was very lucky for me. When he pulled up beside me in that sedan with the familiar white cross painted on the back windscreen, fear had gripped me. Then when he had opened the door and I had taken in the sight of the white hair and beard and crinkled aging skin, I had thought for a second that my dad had descended from the heavens to rescue me. Maybe that’s why I was so willing to jump in the car with him. That and I thought I had better chance with him, than the crazy, angry Anton who was chasing me down the road covered in muck and blood and swinging a knife around.

On closer inspection David was not as much like my dad as I had originally thought. His hair was more grey than white, and a lot shorter than I remembered daddy’s being, and he wasn’t as old as my dad had been. I would put him somewhere between fifty and sixty. But he did have the same warm eyes and soft smile that I remembered on daddy. I was still cautious of his gentle appearance, as I had been fooled once before, but getting a wet, hot and sticky lick from the scraggily haired back seat passenger had put me somewhat at ease.

Mix was one clever and useful dog. When we had first come back to the funeral home David had sent Mix out on his own to check the house, and he had come bounding back happily switching his tail and spinning twice telling us it was all clear. David had informed me that Mix had an uncanny sense of danger and he was always sent ahead first to check things out.

I had told David then of how Daryl and I had come to his home earlier and how Daryl had found Mix out the front of the house. David had asked if I was responsible for eating his food, sleeping in his bed, stealing the funeral homes other car, and letting all the dead in. I had admitted to all but stealing the car, and as penalty David had made me scrub the walls and floors removing all the muck that the walkers had dragged through his home.

David was a very clean person, which was something Daryl and I had picked up on when we had stayed here earlier. Even now as we walked up the steps of the porch he nodded his head towards my feet indicating that I needed to take my boots off. I leaned against the side of the house and tugged them off one by one, and stood them by the door. Mix gave them a sniff then circled around them and lay himself down on the tiled floor as if he would protect them.

“He likes you.” David said nodding to the pile of dirty fur with its tongue lolling out of his mouth.

“I like him too.” I said, giving Mix a scratch on the chin. “He’s a real good guard dog.”

David nodded in agreement. “The best. I’m grateful to the lord that I found him.”

“Found him? You didn’t know him before all this?”

“Nope. I’ve only had him around for a couple months. I was scavenging through a motor home a few miles from here and one of those dead things – the walkers – came out at me, caught me off guard, next thing I know this scraggily mutt was tearing it down to the ground. Saved my life he did.”

I gave Mix another firm rub as praise for his past deeds.

“Why'd you call him Mix?”

“I didn’t know what kind of dog he was, just thought he was a mix, so that was what I called him.”

“Cute.” I responded.

“I guess he might be, under all that dirt. Won’t let me give him a bath.”

I ran my fingers through Mix’s matted and muddy fur, trying to work through the tangles. Despite his scraggly appearance he was clearly well trained, and likely well loved.

“Do you think someone is missin' him?” I asked.

“I think if there was someone left to miss him, he wouldn’t be here with us.”

I wasn’t too sure about that. There were people to miss me, but I wasn’t with them.

* * *

 

We were lucky enough to have stove cooked meal that night. David had been out looking for gas canisters that day he had found me and he had been lucky to find two, which he claimed would last him weeks, but maybe only half as long now I was there. I had been pretty indecisive about whether I was staying. All I ever thought about was getting back to Maggie and the others, and maybe finding Daryl. But David kept insisting the outside world was no place for a young girl to go wandering about on her own, and recent events had proven him to be right. Although I still made a point of pressing the matter every day, and that evening while sitting at dinner was no different.

“I would like to get back to my sister.” I interrupted David telling me some story of his road trip to Canada.

David stopped scooping the soup from his bowl around and gently put the spoon aside. He looked at me with warm but stern eyes.

“I told you I can’t take you there.”

David had told me from the start when I had fist mentioned Terminus that he didn’t like the place and he refused to go there, although he would never actually tell me why.

“I don’t understand why you won’t take me there.” I pressed on.

“Nothing but bad memories at that place.” He replied, picking up his spoon again and scooping up the soup thoughtfully.

He always spoke as if he had been there before, and it always sounded like it was painful for him. I just wished he would tell me the source of his pain.

“Are there bad people there?”

David was gently turning his head from side to side.

“Not bad, just a little… lost.”

“What do you mean? Everyone who comes there is lost, right?”

“I guess. You don’t always want to follow those who are lost though do you?”

I shrugged my shoulders, not entirely sure what he was referring to.

“It’s better just to stay put. In a place you know.” He added.

I had spent three days with David and he had never given me reason to mistrust him. He had been a complete gentleman, giving me space to be alone with my thoughts and chatting with me by the fire when I was in the mood. He was a godly man and insisted on saying grace before every meal, and thanking the lord every time we scavenged a house and found something of use. He had known this place before the turn, I had gathered that much, but every time I asked him about his life before he would clam up, just like when I asked him about Terminus.

I poked around at the piece of stewed meat covered in broth. It tasted pretty terrible, and was most likely just offal.

“I wouldn’t mind some real food you know-Somethin' that doesn’t come from a can.” I thought out loud.

“I only had a small harvest last month, don’t get much during winter.”

He was talking about his small vegetable patch out back which was bare and almost frozen over.

“There’s still meat out there. I wouldn’t mind shooting at somethin' that moves.”

“I don’t much have the stomach for meat that moves.”

He continued spooning the soup into his mouth staring into his almost empty bowl.

“Are you against killin' animals or somethin'?”

“I’m fine with killing animals, just not when there are other alternatives.”

David poked around at a piece of meat in his soup. “Someone has already done the killing for us, and put it in a convenient can.”

“That won’t last forever.” I assured him.

“Well Lil Miss, when the time comes that I must kill to eat, then I guess I’ll have to. That time isn’t now.”

I felt my lip turn out in a pout and I continued to push what might be called food around in my bowl. I wondered if my pouting would have the same effect on David as it did on my dad.

David let out a long impatient sigh, and then gave me a defeated grin. “Okay, you two can go out tomorrow.”

I beamed up at him, happy in my success. In truth I didn’t really want to go hunting for animals, but I did want to improve my marksmanship. If I ever saw Daryl again, I was going to show him just how much I wasn’t obligated to him.

* * *

 

I was washing up after dinner, enjoying the hot soapy water on my hands, when I heard the piano playing from the parlour. I pulled the plug, letting the sink drain and then dried off my hands on the tea towel and went out to give David an audience.

He was struggling somewhat at the piano, missing keys and hesitating between each move, like an amateur.

“Did you play much before?” I asked.

He was startled a little and turned to face me. “Nope. It was my wife and sons who played.”

That was the first time he had said anything about his family. I walked further into the room and stood behind him, wanting to know more.

“Are they dead?” I asked cautiously.

He turned his head back to the piano keys. “My wife and two of my sons are.” He admitted sadly.

“How many sons did you have?”

“I had three.”

“So where is the last one?”

David let out a sigh and then reached in front of him and started thumbing at the pages of the song book.

“Not here.”

Another one of his cryptic answers and I doubted I would get any more out of him, at least not tonight. He looked completely morose, with his downcast eyes and skin sagging downward around his mouth. It was the saddest I had seen him since I had been here.

“You know, I can play a little.” I offered.

He looked up at me eagerly, all the sorrow suddenly gone from his face.

“Would you, please?”

I motioned for him to move over on the stool and he slid off the end and stood up reaching for the song book and started flicking through the pages.

“Here play this one, it’s my favourite.”

He pointed to the notes on the open page.

It was Amazing grace. A song I had heard and sung dozens of times. He had just asked me to play the piano, but I was overwhelmed with the desire to sing as well.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,  
that saved a wretch like me.  
I once was lost but now am found,  
was blind but now I see.

When I turned to see if he was enjoying the song, he had tears streaming down his face, and was clearly overcome with emotion.

“Are you okay.” I said reaching out a hand to touch his arm.

He wiped away his tears with his sleeve and then gently touched my hand on his arm. “Yes, you play the piano _and_ sing beautifully.”

He was looking down at the piano keys now with a frown on his face.

“Are you thinkin' of your family?” I queried

He nodded his head slowly. “Yeah.” He pointed back to the page. “Why don’t you finish the song, lil Miss?”

I put my hands back to the keys and continued playing, wondering if he would ever tell me more.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,  
and grace my fears relieved;  
how precious did that grace appear  
the hour I first believed.

* * *

 

The next day after I had helped David stack the firewood, scrub some towels against the washboard and dust out the parlour, Mix and I took to the woods nearby to see what we could catch. David had tried to deter me from going out as much as possible that day. He refused to let me take the car out, not that I was sure I remembered how to drive anyway. He spent the whole morning insisting I wouldn’t find much out at this time of year, but I remembered Daryl had always managed to bring something home in winter. His last hurdle was that I take the single shot rifle, said it made less noise and I was less likely to go spraying ammunition all over the place. That didn’t bother me, a crossbow was only single shot too.

We hadn’t ventured all that far into the woods before I caught sight of a rabbit burrow only just visible under the thick cover of damp leaves. I dropped down pressing my knee into the icy cold and wet earth and carefully and silently examined my surroundings, looking for further signs of rabbit activity. The silence was broken when Mix let out a happy bark and bounded off towards the burrow and excitedly stuffed his snout inside.

“No, Mixy!” I called after him.

Suddenly a bundle of grey fur was darting out across the leaves in to the distance. I hoisted the rifle up, took aim, fired and watched in satisfaction as the grey bundle tumbled along the ground.

Hitting a moving target, at that speed and at that distance, that was something I wish I could brag to Daryl about.

Mixy bounded over to the rabbit and began sniffing at it. Her tail was still wagging back and forth which meant no walkers were nearby, this was good, as I wasn’t done yet. I picked up the rabbit and looped the rope, which was tied in a knot at my shoulder, around its neck. Then I tucked my hand into the pouch at my waist and pulled out another rifle round. I opened the bolt lever and dropped the round in, then pushed it down and closed the lever.

“Did you plan that Mix?” I asked the dog.

He answered with a tail wag.

I walked on further into the bush with Mix by my side, nose to the ground sniffing out what I assumed to be a trail. He stopped suddenly and started bounding side to side and barking. I began wishing I had left him at home, he was going to scare everything away with the noise he was making. I looked over to the tree in front of us and saw two squirrels dashing across the branches. That must have been what Mix was excited about.

A target as small as a squirrel, racing across a tree - if I got that I would be very impressed. I took aim and fired and as I half expected, I missed.

“Oh well.” I said with a shrug of my shoulders, I turned to Mix who had his front legs stretched out in front of him in the leaves, his hind legs were up in the air and his tail held out stiff behind him. His lips were curled and he let out a low growl, a sound I had never heard him make before.

“What is it boy?” I asked following his line of sight.

From behind the tree that the squirrels had been racing through, a walker came stumbling out, its clothes brown with filth, its skin grey and rotting with blackening flesh exposed around its neck. Its dead eyes locked on to mine and it staggered towards me, arms outstretched and mouth moaning.

I don’t think Mix was trying to tell me about the squirrels after all.

I lined up the walker and went to take a shot, then the empty clink of the firing pin reminded me it was a single shot rifle and I had forgotten to reload after taking a shot at those squirrels. I carefully backed away from the walker while fumbling around in my pouch for another round. Mix was going crazy now darting around in circles barking and growling and sneering.

I dropped a round into the rifle and then drew the rifle up ready to take aim, taking a step back to steady myself. I backed in to something behind me, it was hard, but forgiving, so it wasn’t a tree. Then the rotting stench filled my nose and I felt the cold dead hands grasp on to my neck.

I took a step to twist around and slipped on the wet leaves. I let out a scream and fired into the air as I fell to the ground. The walker was crawling on top of me now, heading for my face. I took the rifle in two hands and swiped it across my chest hitting the stock into the walker’s skull. It was still dragging itself forward, pulling on my sweater, so I smashed at it a few more times until its skull exploded and slushy brain oozed out all over my chest.

I rolled the body off me and made a move to stand up but the other walker was right near me now. It lunged towards me and I braced myself for impact, but suddenly it was yanked backward falling flat on its face. Mix was behind it pulling at the leg of the pants.

I quickly stood up and glanced around ready to make my escape and felt my blood run cold as I saw we were now surrounded with walkers.

“Let’s go Mix!” I shouted to the dog.

He let go of the walker and bounded to my side. I tried to load another round into the gun but my hands were slick with sweat and fumbling in panic. I knocked the pouch and watched in horror as all the rounds tumbled to the ground and were lost among the mud and leaves.

Mix was running circles around me now barking and growling as ferociously as a little fluffy dog could. One of the walkers lunged for him, but Mix skilfully dodged out of the way, and the walker fell to the ground. I used the butt of the rifle to smash that walkers head in while it was down. It sent a stream of blood and gore up my arms and all over my hands, something I was accustomed to.

There were still three more walkers stumbling towards us. I swung the rifle out and let it smack into the head of one with a wet crunch, knocking it to the ground, and then took another swing at it just to make sure it would stay down. The rifle slipped through all the blood and sweat on my fingers and went flying over the head of a nearby walker, falling into a bush behind it.

I turned around to make a run for it but as I stepped one of the walkers lunged at my feet and I fell to the ground. Mix was on to him biting at its clothing and trying to drag it off me, but this one was determined, it kept crawling towards me dragging Mix behind him.

I reached down and pulled out the steak knife I had got from the cutlery drawer and put in my boot the first night I had stayed with David. I had put it there as I wasn’t sure of David’s intention. I had not needed it for David, but I was glad I had chosen to keep it in there. It wasn’t the best weapon, but at this point it was all I had. I forced the knife through the walkers eyeball and up into its skull and then kicked it away from my legs.

There were two more left now, stumbling slowly towards me. David would be angry if I left that rifle, and I was sure I could handle the two so I decided to end them. While Mix darted between them providing a distraction I drove the steak knife in through the ear of one. I tried the same on the second, but its skull was much firmer. I was wrestling with the walker now, pushing its snapping jaws away from my throat and trying to pry its skeletal hands away from my shoulder. It was a strong one, and I thought it must have been freshly turned with the way it was overpowering me. I had backed my way into a tree now and panic was setting in as I felt myself weakening. Then a flash of white and fur was in my face and the walker was knocked to the ground. Mix was now tearing at its throat, throwing his head from side to side. I took my knife and stabbed it into the walker’s brain until it was finally still.

I was covered in blood and mud and walker brains, and my hands were trembling and my heart was pounding in my ears. Mix was covered in mud, dirt and leaves and his mouth was a crimson red from where he had bit the walker. I had been scared for my life, but now I was scared for Mix, what would happen if a dog ate walker flesh?

“Think we should head home.” I said shakily to my faithful companion.

* * *

 

As I made my way back towards the funeral home I could see David running out towards me. He approached me with lines of concern creasing his forehead.

“What happened to you? You’re covered in blood.”

“It’s not mine.” I said stumbling on my trembling legs.

He grabbed me by shoulders to steady me. “You run into trouble?”

I nodded my head and then I felt tears starting to brew and sobs starting to take hold of my body.

“Beth, are you okay?”

“I just – I just came so close!”

David started shaking his head and his face twisted in anguish. “I shouldn’t have let you go out there alone.” David said regretfully.

“I wasn’t alone, Mix did a good job of protecting me.” I said looking down at the dog.

“Well we must give thanks to our little friend.”

We both turned to Mix who was sitting by my side, and nuzzling his nose into my leg affectionately.

“He bit a walker.” I said solemnly.

David gave Mix a quick rub behind the ear. “He’s done that a dozen times, lil Miss, and he’s still the same old Mix.”

He gave me a reassuring smile and then pulled my arm over his shoulder and walked me back to the house.

* * *

 

I was still crying when we got to the door, completely overcome with emotion. I don’t know why I was taking it so hard. I had come close to being mauled by walker’s dozens of times before.

David was concerned for me too, he took me into the house without even making me take my boots off and I cringed on his behalf when I saw the trail of mud and blood I left behind on the polished floorboards. He didn’t seem bothered and continued on in and up the stairs and to the upstairs bathroom. He sat me down on the edge of the bathtub. And then ducked back out of the room and returned a minute later holding a grey fleece sweater and pants.

“You wash up Lil’ Miss, and put these on. I’ll get a fire started.”

I took the clothes gratefully and watched him leave, closing the door behind him.

I glanced around me at the familiar bathroom. The same one that Daryl and I had discovered over a week ago. I was sitting on the same bath he had told me he was going to fill for me. I smiled as I imagined him carting all that water up the stairs. I thought about how he had done the same over at the house in the Pecan grove. He had been so good to me trying to help me heal after being with Len and the others, and he had done such a good job of it. Len was just a distant memory now. I missed Daryl terribly. I missed Maggie and the others, and it was killing me to think they were only a couple hours’ drive away. They didn’t even know where I was or who I was with. Would they be scared for me? Or would they somehow now I was okay?

I think maybe that was what had made me shaky today after the walker attack, knowing that if I died out there, none of them would ever know what happened to me. Although I’m sure they could make assumptions, there was a certain peace you could have in _knowing_ what has become of your loved ones.

* * *

 

After I had cleaned up and put the new cloths on, I bundled up my bloody mess of clothing and took them downstairs to where David was sitting by the fire. He jumped up when he saw me and stepped towards me.

“I’ll see these washed for you.” He sais, taking the clothing.

I nodded my head, and he pushed past me towards the doorway.

“I need to leave, David.” I said firmly, interrupting his stride.

He stopped and turned to me with a look of confusion on his face.

“I need to go to Terminus.” I added.

David began shaking his head again. He opened his mouth to reply but before he could talk I interrupted him.

“I could have died today, and none of my loved ones would have known.”

“But you didn’t.” He insisted.

“But I could have. I need to be with them. I need to know what has happened with them.”

David was still shaking his head at me, but I could see a softening in his gaze.

“Please David, you need to take me to them. I need to be with my family. What’s the point in livin' if I can’t be with the ones I love?”

He was silent for a moment, frowning down at my bundle of clothing thoughtfully. After a few seconds of thought he lifted his head slowly and gave me a small smile and a gentle nod.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What are your theories on what happened to Beth?


	2. Empty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There isn't much to do in a steel box, except scheme and dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm sure the TWD writers will come up with some elaborate scheme of how to get them out of that box, but I'm not that smart!  
> Not sure if they're in a steel box, or a fibreglass box...so lets just say its steel for now.

I couldn’t remember how I got here. I couldn’t even remember how I had left Terminus. I wasn’t even sure what had made me want to come back here, to the funeral home. This was the place Beth and I had said we wanted to stay, before she had been taken. Was there some part of me that thought this is where she would go if I lost her?

My body was aching and exhausted, and my skin was both clammy and cold and my clothing wet with what I assumed to be sweat. I must have been running for hours, or maybe even days. I couldn’t remember when I slept last. My legs were so tired and numb it felt like I was just gliding on air, but when I looked down I could see the muddy boots stomping along the ground, and I knew they were my own.

I kept on gliding past the line of stones growing out of the ground like grey, giant fingers pushing through the earth. One of them looked different and out of place, like it had recently been changed. I glanced at it as I slid past. It read ‘Hershel Greene’. I didn’t remember it saying that the last time I was here.

I continued up to the house, and stepped up on to the porch and pushed open the wooden door that was already ajar. The inside was clean like the last time I had been here, except it seemed a little different, a little more bare, like something was missing. I was sure there were pictures on the wall before, and weren’t the walls floral? I went into the first doorway and examined the row of seating in front of the open casket. That room also seemed to be strange. The flowers by the casket were bright, fresh and living. Where would someone find flowers like that around here? I stepped back out into the hall and heard an unexpected yet familiar sound, traveling down the stairway.

It sounded like a muffled cry, and then a gasp, like someone was in trouble, and it sounded like it was a woman.

I raced up the stairs taking them two at a time and stormed over across the wooden floorbaords to the closed bedroom door where the sounds were coming from. I didn’t bother turning the handle, somehow I knew it would be locked. I lifted my leg and drove it forward into the door, splintering it at the latch and forcing it to collapse into the room.

Before me was a brass posted bed, sitting below a sun filled window. On the bed the sheets were twisted and bunched and pushed to the side. On top of the bed was the milky white back of a woman. The curves were firm and subtle and familiar. I recognised the way the hips flared out just barely at the waist, the gentle hollowing than ran along the length of the spine, the blonde hair that curled softly over her shoulders, and sprang out in messy wisps at the top. That was Beth. She was grinding her hips around in a circular motion and upon them were strong dark skinned hands pressing into her pale skin. They didn’t even seem bothered by me barging in though the door.

“Beth?” I said in a voice that wasn’t my own.

She turned her head gently and I could see the profile of her face. Her big blue eyes looked back at me, still full of innocence, and her thin lips drew up into a grin. Then with a gentle and controlled voice, of someone who knew exactly what she was doing, she spoke.

“Daryl.”

* * *

 

“Daryl?”

I could feel fine fingers pressed into my shoulder, through the layers of cotton and leather. I knew the voice that was calling my name. It was familiar, but it wasn’t Beth, it was the other Greene. I opened my eyes and snapped my head around to the direction of the voice.

It was still dark inside, but it was light enough for me to make out Maggie Greene’s facial features. She had jumped back when I had snapped my head around, and now looked down on me like I was some kind of rabid dog that just bit its master.

“What is it?” I said, giving my face a firm wipe downward from forehead to chin in an effort to wake myself up.

I stared up into the ceiling of the box car. It was covered in bloody fingerprints and indentations from where we had tried finding a weakness in the top. I was laying on my back with my head pressed hard against the warn timber fibre boards, not the most comfortable bed, but I had slept in worse. I pushed myself to a seated position and gave my neck a stretch and rolled my shoulders around, trying to loosen up a bit.

It had all been a dream. I wasn’t outside enjoying the fresh air, and smell of rain and pine. I wasn’t anywhere near that graveyard, or the funeral home, and I hadn’t just been watching Beth fuck Anton.

I was in a room with eleven other people, some familiar and some not so much so.

“I think you were havin' a nightmare. You were breathin' real fast and it sounded like you called out for Beth.” Maggie informed me.

I was glad for the darkness when I felt heat rise from my neck to my cheeks. How often had I called out Beth’s name last night? She was in all my dreams, and nightmares.

I gave my shoulders a shrug trying to look as casual as possible.

“Just a bit worried ‘bout 'er is all.”

Maggie stuck out her bottom lip and lowered her eyes.

“She’s not the one to worry ‘bout.” She said quietly and then looked around at our enclosure. “She’s not the one stuck in a box car.”

A steel box car, with the only light coming from around the openings of the side and back doors. Down one end was a stinking cesspit of what we all used as the shitter and pisser. Two five gallon bins, with nothing to use for toilet paper. We had all avoided having a dump over the last couple of days, but the smell from previous inhabitants still lingered, and I knew from the way my guts were twisting that we were going to have to add to it soon.

Down the other end was the twelve of us, with our bottles of water and paper food bowls. All cowered and huddled together like mistreated circus animals. In the early mornings and the nights it was like an icebox in here, and in the middle of the day it was like a sauna but we still all sat close together- well they did – I tried to keep to myself and keep my thoughts hidden.

My family was in here with me. Maggie, Beths sister. Her partner Glenn. Bob and Sasha who looked like they may be a couple now by the way they sat curled together. There was Rick, Carl and Michonne too. Carl spent most of his time curled up on Michonne’s lap, and Rick spent his time watching over Carl with a guilty look on his face.

Then there were the newcomers. Tara, a trainee police officer who Glenn had come upon on the way to Terminus. There was Rosita and Abraham who were part of some military support group, and then there was the fat science guy with the stupid haircut. Apparently he was a big deal, but so far he had just been a big pain in the ass.

The science guy, Eugene, was watching Maggie and I talk and thought he would add some of his useless knowledge to the conversation.

“As part of the ‘final solution’ in 1941, the Jews were shipped out to concentration camps in freight trains.”

Everyone stopped what they were doing, which wasn’t much, and looked at Eugene.

“They were called _Sonderzüge –_ that means _‘special trains’._ The cars were locked and windowless. They transported people like cattle.”

“Thanks for the history lesson, but we don’t need to hear it right now, okay?” Interrupted Rick. His eyes glanced over at Carl who had his head resting against Michonne’s shoulder. The kid didn’t need any reminders of our fate.

“Just thought you might like to know. They had no food or water, and there were something like 150 people per car, so we’re not doing so bad.”

“That’s enough Eugene.” Michonne snapped, giving Eugene one of her trademark scowls, while holding Carl protectively.

Eugene pressed his lips together for a few seconds and then let them open again.

“Don’t think they’re gonna gas us though, think they’ve got other plans for us.”

“Shut up Eugene!” Came four or five different voices at once.

“It’s okay guys.” Carl spoke up for himself. “I know we’re totally fucked.”

“Hey, watch your language.” Scolded Rick, wagging a disciplinary finger at his son.

“Seriously dad? We live in a world where people eat people, living people, and you’re worried about my language?”

Everyone turned to look at Carl who had obviously come to the same conclusion we all had. Carl looked around at all of our faces.

“I’m not stupid. I’ve heard what you guys have been saying at night, and I can hear the screams of the others just as well as you can. They want to eat us, don’t they?”

We all looked to Rick to see how he was going to respond.

He gave his nose an awkward rub and then sniffed. “I don’t know.”

“I would say there’s a good chance that they are. They’re feeding us powdered milk. Milk has the same caloric value as sugar you know? They’re trying to fatten us up...”

We all turned to Eugene with groans and shushes and looks of warning.

“…and those bones out there, the ones we passed when we came in, they had the discernable structure of the human skeleton.”

“Hey science guy.” I butted in. “Why don’t you use that big head of yours to think us a way out of here.”

Eugene looked around at the surrounding walls, floors and ceilings.

“Well we did try to find the points of frailty, but there were none.” Eugene nodded his head towards Carl. “and young Carl's hands weren’t strong enough to shift the gears in the doors.”

“We know what we tried brainiac, think up somethin’ new why don’t ya?” I growled.

“Don’t think its brains that will get this job done.” Rick said, glancing back and forth between me and Eugene. “Think we gotta use some brawn.”

We all looked to him waiting for him to explain.

“It’s been light out for a while now, they’ll be bringin’ us some more milk and water soon. The last time we weren’t ready, we didn’t know what to expect, but this time we do. They only send a few to the door, we just gotta be ready for ‘em, rush out at ‘em when they open the door, take their weapons and use them as hostages.”

“I don’t know Rick, they shot at your hostage before.” Michonne pointed out.

Rick was nodding his head. “Then we’ll use them as human shields. We just gotta get their weapons, take as many down as we can and make for the fence. It’s a no brainer- like I said.”

“Sounds simple.” Said Tara

“Sounds risky.” Said Abraham.

“I calculate our chances of success to be rather low in this.” Added Eugene.

“What other choice do we have?” Asked Rick.

We all looked around at each other trying to get a feel of what we were all thinking.

“I’m with you, man.” I said as I strode over to Rick and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Beats sittin’ ‘round in ‘ere doin’ nothin’.”

“What have we got to lose?” Michonne said with a shrug.

* * *

 

We were all set to put the plan into action. Abraham, Rick and I would stand behind the door, while the others stood back. Then we would rush out at them and make for their weapons. The others would come out after us and give us back up, or go for any other guys that were around, and then we would make for the fence.

“As soon as all of us are out there, you follow, get low, stay low and run.” Rick instructed Carl.

“You don’t look back, you don’t wait on us, you just get to the fence, get the bag and get out of here.”

“I’m not gonna leave you guys.” Carl said defiantly. “What the hell am I gonna do out there on my own?”

“Survive.” Rick replied with a snarl.

Carl took a step back and started pouting at him, but he knew not to argue. Rick gave a sigh and softened his tone.

“It doesn’t matter what happens to me, Carl. I just need to get you out of this, I can’t see you hurt.”

“What about me, dad? You think I want to see _you_ hurt?” Carl pleaded.

“That’s why you don’t look back, son.” Replied Rick firmly.

Carl looked like he was about to protest but he was interrupted by Maggie shushing. Her eye was pressed up to the gap in the door, peering out.

“They’re coming.” She whispered turning back to us.

We all shuffled into our positions waiting for the next move.

“Move to the back of the car.” A voice demanded from outside.

Rick, Abraham and I stood by the side of the door and waited for the clanking and grinding of metal as they moved the latch and rolled it open.

The muzzle of a combat rifle was what entered first.

“Roll your empty bottles towards the door.” The voice instructed.

The others all rolled the bottles and we watched as hands reached in and collected the bottles. Rick waved a hand and the three of us all bounded out the open doorway knocking into the waiting men.

I had grabbed the first guy, a young guy with blonde hair and ginger stubble on his chin. His eyes filled with shock and terror as I pinned him to the ground and started smashing the handguard of the combat rifle into his nose. I couldn’t see anyone else, or hear anything else, just the grunts I was giving, the cries he was giving and the crunch of metal on bone.

I stopped pounding on the kids face and pulled the rifle out of his grip and stood up to see what was happening.

Rick and Abraham had guns pressed to their temples and a frustrated look on their faces. Another one of the Terminus people, a lady, had her rifle pointed into the opening of the car.

“You think no-ones tried that before?” Another man was strutting over to me now, he was balding with grey stubble growing out of his chin and had an arrogant look on his face.

“You think we’re stupid? You think we don’t know you're sitting in there planning your escape?”

Another guy was approaching from behind me and I lifted the rifle, turned and aimed it into his face.

“You best hand over the gun, before anyone else gets hurt.” He pointed at the young guy at my feet who was gripping on to his nose and sobbing. “I’m not too happy about what you did to young Ben there, but I’ll have to let it slide, we’re not ready for you to die – yet.”

“Hand it over, man.” Said the guy who had the rifle in my face. I glanced over to Rick who nodded his head defeated. We weren’t going to win this round. I gripped the rifle by the hand guard and the stock and pushed it angrily into the guy’s chest.

The younger guy, Ben, Scrambled off the ground and to his feet, holding his broken nose.

“You should do them next, these guys are dangerous, just look at ‘em, look what they did to my face.” Ben snorted angrily, jutting a finger towards his swollen nose.

“You know how Gareth rotates his stock, he’s not ready for these ones yet.”

“Yeah, well on this occasion we should have the fresh stuff first.” Protested Ben.

The bald man tilted his head back towards the open train car. “You all hop on back in there. We’re not ready for you yet.”

I gave the kid one last sneer and turned to followed Rick and Abraham as they climbed back into the train car.

The nine faces that stared back at us from the darkness all had the look of disappointment in their eyes, and as I heard the door roll shut behind me, I felt my heart sink with disappointment too.

There were too many, and they were too organised. There was no way we were going to get out of here, which didn’t involve mass slaughter, and most likely of us.

* * *

 

This time I woke up in the middle of the woods. Another fucking dream, and to make things worse I was butt naked. I could see something moving in the bushes and hear the snapping of branches and cracking of twigs. Some kind of instinct took hold of me and I started running, not in any particular direction, I just ran.

I had only taken a few steps before I heard a loud thump and felt a searing pain in my left shoulder. I turned my head to look down at it and saw an arrowhead protruding through the flesh.

I gripped around the arrowhead feeling the warm sticky blood that was oozing out of the wound. I could feel the length of the shaft running through the muscles in my shoulder and exiting out the back. I turned my head to my back to see a few inches of black shaft and white fletching. It was too long to be a crossbow bolt but it looked somewhat familiar.

I turned around to see who had shot me, and there standing before me with an arrow nocked and ready to let fly, was Beth. Her blonde hair was tied back in a tight ponytail pulling her temples taught, her face was heavily made up in black eye liner and blood red lipstick, and she was wearing army issue camos. She was holding a compound bow, an airborne by the look of it, like Len’s bow.

“What're you doin', Beth?”

“Just huntin'.” She said casually before letting the arrow go and sending it into my other shoulder.

I let out a growl as I fell to the ground. Both shoulders were throbbing now, and I crossed my arms over so I could hold on to each.

Beth walked over to me and dropped herself down on top of me heavily, pushing all the air out of my lungs.

“You taught me well.”

She tossed the bow to the ground and then placed her hands down on top of mine that were resting on my shoulders, causing a new wave of pain to run through my body. I grunted through the discomfort.

“Don’t know about you, but I’m starving.” She gave me a wide grin and then threw her head down into my neck and started tearing at the flesh with her teeth.

* * *

 

I shot up straight from my position on the ground and tried to get control of my gasps, not wanting anyone to know I had another bad dream.

I _was_ starving, and I think it was the growling in my stomach that had woken me from my nightmare. After our attempt at escape yesterday we weren’t given any more food, which was unfortunate because now we were all weak with hunger and none of us could think clearly.

Every plan we had come up with sounded exactly the same. Running, tackling, dodging, killing, climbing. Some of us had even thought of ways to outsmart them, convince them we were no good to them, no good to eat, that they had to let us go. Some plans involved us convincing them that we would help them, support their cause. But none of us, not even smart ass Eugene, knew how to make any plan work.

Everyone had huddled into their little groups talking about their histories. What college they went to, where they met their first loves, the fun times they had as kids. I didn’t know what any of that was like so I just kept to myself, and listened to what everyone else had to say.

Everyone was sitting in there Kumbaya sharing circle when Rick tapped Carl on the shoulder and pulled him off to the side. It was the first time I had seen them alone together since we had been put in here.

They were talking in low voices and I had the feeling I shouldn’t be listening to their conversation, but the only other thing to do was turn myself in knots stressing about Beth, or listen to the bullshit happy stories of everyone else, so I let my ears absorb what Rick and Carl were saying.

“I’m sorry about what I did, about what you had to see. I know you’re mad at me…”Rick started explaining.

“I’m not angry at you dad.” Carl interrupted. “I heard what you said to Daryl, when I was in the truck, about that man, about what you did to him. I’m not angry, and I’m not scared of you.”

Rick was watching him with a pained look on his face.

“I know you did what you had to, and I…I’m glad you did it.” Carl shrugged his shoulders like what he had seen that night was nothing at all. “I’m not just glad, I’m pleased…satisfied. He got what he deserved.”

Rick nodded and gave a weak grin. “You just been real quiet, you haven’t said much to me since we been here.”

“Well…I’m a little…scared, dad.”

Rick reached an arm around Carl’s small shoulders and pulled him against his chest. Carl tucked his head under Ricks chin. “I’ll do whatever I can to protect you Carl, I couldn’t be there for your mom, and I couldn’t be there for Judith, but as long as I have breath in my lungs I’ll be here to protect you.”

It was a father and son moment I had never experienced. But I had a pretty good feeling that what I had just seen and heard was love.

* * *

 

Everyone kept up the chatter throughout the day. I was amazed of how much these people could talk about nothing and everything. It made a droning sound that echoed around the steel box and vibrated through my head making me want to sleep the day away. I felt my head nod to my chest but then I was pulled back from slumber by a sudden change in the air.

Everyone was suddenly silent and I looked up at them to see what had stopped the chatter. Now I could hear what the others could hear. It sounded like gun fire, and a lot of it. There was shouting and yelling and orders being thrown around. The sound was somewhat muted, so it must be coming from the other side of Terminus. Maybe they were being attacked? Maybe there was someone coming to rescue us? That’s was a stupid thought. It was probably just a walker attack. Maybe all these cannibal fucks would get eaten themselves, and then we could just be left here to waste away and die peacefully, before coming back and wandering around in the box car for the rest of eternity.

The gun fire didn’t last all that long, and it fell back into silence. We were all quiet for a few minutes waiting and wanting for something to happen, but nothing did. There was no rescue, there were no walker groans outside the door, it was the same as it had been for the last few days.

The chatter started up again and I let myself fall back in to sleep.

* * *

 

I woke up to total darkness. It was so dark I had to touch my face to make sure my eyes were open. I had never remembered it being this dark, but I had slept through the dark nights over the last few days. Sleep had actually come pretty easy to me despite our intense situation. I guess that was the exhaustion caused from extreme boredom. I sat for a moment trying to let my eyes adjust to the darkness but it seemed like the longer I waited the darker it became. I listened for a moment waiting to hear a sigh or a snort, or hushed whispers or some sound of sleeping, but I couldn’t hear anything. I couldn’t even feel the heat radiating from the distant bodies. It was like everyone had gone.

I pushed my hands against the floor and up to a stand and began feeling around the car with my toes. I could feel nothing but the firmness of the timber of the floor below my boots. I stepped out into the darkness, waving my hands, investigating the air in front of me, while taking another step and then another. The train car seemed to have grown, I was sure that the walls had only been a few yards away. I started running now just trying to find the wall of the train car, and not caring about stumbling in the dark. I called out, and the sound of my voice just disappeared into the darkness with nothing to echo the sound back to me. I now realised that I wasn’t in a box car anymore, I was just running around in a pitch dark empty area.

Then I saw a small white dot over in the distance. I turned towards it and started running again, calling out to it. As I got closer the dot grew bigger and started to stretch out into a pointed cylindrical shape. The light from it was also illuminating a figure behind it. It was a female figure and as I came nearer I recognised the slight body shape and the blonde hair. Beth was standing there, dressed in the clothes I had last seen her in, although somehow cleaner. Her blonde hair was tied to the side with a thin plait curling down by her neck, and she had a soft smile on her lips. Her eyes peered up at me from lowered lids. She was holding a candle that had melted into her bare hands. The wax had trickled down over her thumb and between her fingers and set hard in the shape of tears hanging off the underside of her hands. I stopped myself before her.

“What are you doing here?” I asked her.

“I’m here to give you hope.” She said in her gentle warm and familiar voice.

* * *

 

I woke up in the darkness again, but not the same type of darkness. This was filled with familiar bodies making familiar sounds. It had just been another dream about Beth, she wasn’t really here, but somehow the candle was. Actually it wasn’t a candle it was a flashlight. How did someone get a flashlight?

The uneasiness caused by the sudden appearance of a flashlight caused me to shoot upright and jump to my feet ready to fight or flee. The door to the car was opened and a grey blue light was cast across the wooden floor and on to a line of people standing with weapons aimed towards us. The leader of the group at Terminus, Gareth, was among them.

He was rubbing his chin thoughtfully and letting his eyes rest on each of us, examining us from head to toe. He stopped rubbing his chin and pointed his finger out towards Abraham.

“The commando.” He ordered. Then his eyes moved over to Rick. “The ring leader.”

Four of his people stepped forward moved over to Rick and Abraham while the others kept their weapons aimed on us.

“Where are you taking us?” Asked Rick

“Out of here, you want to get out of here, right?” replied Gareth.

The men made Rick and Abraham turn around and started looping zip ties around their hands.

“What about my son?” Rick asked, turning his head to Carl who was gripping onto Michonne’s arm.

“Not his time.” Replied Gareth, with a shake of his head. “Alright get them out of here.” He said to his men.

“Dad?” Screeched Carl in his breaking teen voice.

“It’s okay son, you stay with Michonne and the others. You’ll be okay.” Rick said unconvincingly.

“I’m supposed to stay with you dad…you’re supposed…to stay with me.” Carl said between strained sobs.

Rick turned his eyes to Gareth and gave him a pleading look.

“I don’t think you want your boy to be with you.” Gareth advised.

“Take me.” I blurted out.

Everyone turned to look at me.

“You his son too?” Gareth said with a chuckle.

“No take me, instead of him, Rick, the ring leader.” I said, pointing at Rick.

Gareth ran his eyes over me and then gave a shrug. “Makes no difference.” He turned back to Rick. “I’ll let you guys have a few more moments together if that’s what you really want.”

Gareth waved a hand to the man who had hold of Rick and pointed him in my direction.

“Take the archer instead.”

I willingly held my hands up and let them be zip tied together. I was fine to take Ricks place. I didn’t want to see him and Carl separated, and I was anxious to get out of here and get to the next stage of my journey. Even if the next stage was the last.

“Thanks.” Rick said with a nod of his head. His voice was strong, but there was pain in his eyes.

“No Problem, brother.” I replied.

“Take these off?” Rick queried pushing his tied arms out behind him towards Gareth.

Gareth shook his head. “You're still gonna need them. Don’t come by those easy you know.”

I may have saved Rick for now, but if they didn’t come up with something soon, it would have all been for nothing.

They lined Abraham and I up at the door. The girl Rosita was sobbing and the rest of the faces of my fellow captives all looked as grey as a walker’s. I felt like I should say goodbye or something meaningful to them, but the only person I really wanted to say anything to was Beth, and she wasn’t here. So I kept my head turned towards the fur lined collar of Abraham’s coat, and marched forward.

We were pushed out the door and down the steps and made to wait while they closed the door behind us. They started marching us forward and then to the right towards a concrete ramp that led up to a huge metal rolled door.

I knew the room they were leading us to was going to be the where they killed us. We had nothing to lose now, the others were safely away in the box car, may as well take out as many as I could before they took me out.

“You in?” I asked Abraham, without need to explain.

He gave a nod of his head and threw his bulky body into the man in front of him knocking him to the ground. I stepped backwards landing my foot in hard to the instep of the man behind me. He wailed in pain and began hopping. I turned and kicked forcefully into his kneecap making him fall to the ground. I lined up his head with my boot and started stomping it into the ground.

Then everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to use Norman's candle in the darkness reference.
> 
> How do you guys think they'll get out of there?


	3. In Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "There's a new sheriff in town." ~ Rick Grimes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter could have gone on and on forever! There was so much I wanted to explain about Terminus and its people, but I ended up just skimming over the details so we could get to the Bethyl reunion (which I promise will be next chapter, and smut will return the chapter after). If you want me to clear anything up, just ask.
> 
> The bible verse in here is Deuteronomy 28:49-58
> 
> I'm looking for songs for Beth to sing later on down the track. Please make suggestions in the comments, as I have to admit I don't listen to too many love songs.

The red brick and sheet metal rooved buildings of Terminus were surrounded by an expansive chain link fence, lightly rusted, around ten feet high and topped with barbed wire. We had been driving alongside it since turning off the main road and down a small access path which had been obscured by low growing bushes and trees.

I was in a state of giddy excitement as we made the approach. It had been over a week since I had last seen Maggie, and since I had that fight with Daryl. I was hopeful that Daryl did end up making his own way back to Terminus after I had hurt him. Once he had calmed down I was sure he would want to be back with his family, even if he was still angry at me. If he did make it back there, Maggie had probably told him I was with Anton. He probably thought I had left them all to be with him. When I told him about who Anton really was, and what he had tried to do, I wondered would he be angry or relieved?

David pulled the car up in front of a chain linked gate with the road extending beyond it and turning in, out of sight, behind the red brick buildings. Standing on the opposite side of the gate was a man wearing a fur lined bomber hat and a woollen coat. He was watching us cautiously with the muzzle of his rifle poking through one of the diamonds of the fence wire, aimed in our direction.

David turned off the ignition, pushed the door open and stepped out of the car. He let out a groan and arched his back in an effort to recover from the one and a half hours of sitting. He stepped away from the car and began approaching the gate, leaving the driver’s side door open behind him. Mix was whimpering and pawing at the backseat impatiently, wanting to follow his master. I reached back and gave him a comforting scratch under the chin.

“What are you lot doing coming in by the back roads?” The man questioned in a rough and brusque tone.

David gingerly paced towards the man with the gun, holding his hands out submissively.

“Afternoon Kevin, I see you got your position on watch after all.” David responded in an amicable tone.

The man, Kevin, pulled the gun back through the fence and leaned in closer, making inspection through one of the diamonds.

“David?” The man’s jaw dropped and mouth gaped at David in awe as recognition set in.

“Oh man, where have you been?”

“Went back to the old neighbourhood for a bit, to take some time out.” David replied. He lowered his hands and tucked them into the pockets of his jeans.

Kevin nodded towards the car. “Who you got with you?”

David turned and beckoned me out of the car with a wave. I opened the door and stepped out and walked forward trying to smile as sweetly as possible, hoping to impress my new possible friend. Mix jumped out of the car and followed at my heel.

“This here is a dear friend of mine, her name is Beth, she’s been separated from her family.” David explained.

I raised my hand and gave a sheepish wave.

Kevin gave me a quick up and down and then tipped his head in greeting to me with a warm smile on his face. “Welcome Beth, and God bless.”

He started fumbling around at the padlock and chain that held the gate together and then the gate was pushed open with a creak and a shudder, that shook the whole fence. He stepped towards me with his hand outstretched to mine. I took it absorbing the ice cold touch against my warmer hand and gave it a shake.

Kevin bent down and gave Mix a rub on the head, and Mix let out an anxious whimper. Kevin peered behind me curiously looking into the car.

“Greg and Gavin?” Kevin said in an inquiring tone.

David shook his head. “They didn’t make it.”

Kevin’s face dropped sullenly and he gave David a comforting pat on the shoulder.

  
“I’ll let you guys in, just take the car around to west block- you remember?” Kevin moved back to the gate and pushed it wider grinding the metal hinge and letting out a screech.

“I remember.” David said with a tip of his head, he turned back to the car waving for me to follow.

When the doors were closed behind us and the engine was back on I turned to David to question him.

“Greg and Gavin? Who were they?”

“My sons, the younger two.”

David’s face was set in sadness, making him look older than he actually was. I chose not to ask any more about them and focused on taking in the sights of what could be my new home. It was a cluster of brick and corrugated steel buildings with many large windows, some covered with shutters, and some left open. There were rows upon rows of large doors leading in to what I assumed were stock rooms and warehouses. A few people were wandering idly along the road who stopped to inspect the sight of the sedan containing the man, woman and dog, with the white cross on the back windshield.

David came to a row of vehicles all neatly parked beside each other. There were all different types of cars. A few of mini vans, some trucks and a couple of four wheel motorcycles. We parked the car alongside the others and stepped out.

“Where’s Gareth?” David called out to one of the passers-by.

The man pointed out to his left. “In the comms shed.” He called back.

Mix and I followed David around to a large brick building that was filled with loading equipment, and desks and work stations. Three people were sitting at a desk at the end of the room. They all stood and watched us as we walked towards them.

One of them was a man who was somewhere in his late twenties or early thirties. He had short dark brown hair that was long in the front and fell over the side of his face. He had slight stubble growing on his upper lip and over his chin and jaw. He looked very respectable and even a little cute. There was something in his bone structure and eyes that looked familiar.

The man stopped a few yards away from us and inspected us glancing quickly over Mix and myself and resting his eyes on David. A small sound escaped his lips that sounded like a choked laugh, mixed in with a more discernable word.

“Dad?”

* * *

 

Once David and Gareth had greeted each other with a hug and told each other how much they had been missed. They spoke briefly about Gavin and Greg. It turns out David had left Terminus some months ago with his younger sons and a few others. In there first few weeks back, they hadn't been used to being on their own, and had been ambushed by rotters. They had lost three men from their small group including, Gavin and Greg. Gareth looked devastated by the news, and tried to comfort David but David pushed the offer of comfort away and said he didn't want to talk abut it anymore. So Gareth turned his chin up and led us out of the large room and down a hallway and out into the open, where arrays of buildings were surrounding us.

“We’ve got quite the community here, everyone has a role to play, and you will too.” Gareth explained giving me an encouraging grin. “We have over forty people with us here. They’ve come from all over the state. Some even interstate.”

“Did you have a woman come here about a week ago? Brown hair up to here.” I motioned to my collarbone. “Green eyes. She would have been with an African American man and woman.”

Gareth’s eyes lifted to the sky and he let out a thoughtful groan, and then his eyes went back to my face.

“I don’t remember anyone of that description, but we have people coming and going all the time, it’s possible I overlooked them.”

She would have to have been here then, there was nowhere else she would have gone, although I found it hard to believe he wouldn’t notice her within a week. Maybe she had already passed through here, and I had missed her.

“What about a man with a crossbow?”

“A man with a crossbow? I would remember that I’m sure. Sorry no one like that has been through here.” Gareth answered without even thinking.

The little flicker of hope I had experienced when thinking of seeing Maggie again, now dissipated. Daryl hadn’t come this way after all. He must still be out there on his own. He must have been so angry at me. David was watching my facial expression so I turned my face to Mix, who was by my side and focused on him while trying not to let my face fall with disappointment too much.

“We’ve got several generators, although we’ve had to roster their usage, fuel has been hard to come by lately. We have an infirmary, a wash room with its own water supply, and flushing toilets, but we go by the rule: _yellow let it mellow._ ” He chuckled to himself softly. “Sorry, no showers running yet, but it’s something we might work on in the future.”

We stepped out into an open area with planter boxes built up beside the brick walls. They were full of cabbages, herbs and other green growth, and I could see corn growing outside the far gate. There was a table along the pathway, topped with washboards, buckets and washing baskets and some neatly folded clothing on a trolley nearby.

“We have a garden, a laundry area, we have people rostered on to help with those. I’m sure David can explain to you how all that works.” Gareth said throwing a look over his shoulder to David.

“And this here is our outside dining area.” He spread his arms out to the area before us which was dotted with large wooden spindles, attached to umbrellas, with mismatched chairs alongside them, obviously used for dining. “We have a mess hall too, but we do like to enjoy the fresh air, when its not too cold.”

Gareth’s head turned to the sound of footsteps approaching and David and I both turned to see who it was. It was an older balding man with grey stubble on his chin and a fretful look in his eyes. He looked at us suspiciously as he came nearer and then his eyes widened in recognition as he saw David’s face.

“David?” He marvelled. He stepped forward and shook his hand. “Never thought we would see you again.”

“What is it, Neil?” Gareth inquired, interrupting their reunion.

“Ben’s been hurt.” Neil replied.

“Bad?”

“Just a broken nose, but we need to talk to you ‘bout something.”

They held each other’s gaze, communicating to each other in a way I didn’t understand.

“You’ll have to excuse me. Dad, you can take her up to the living quarters. There in the same place. Just find yourself an empty room, we’re a bit short on beds at the moment, but there should be plenty of blankets up there.”

Gareth began backing away from us, following behind the balding man.

“I’ll check in on you later, see how you’re settling in. Welcome to Terminus, Beth, and God bless.”

* * *

 

David took me inside a nearby building and up a flight of stairs to the first level. There was a long corridor at the top of the staircase with a walkway going off in both directions. In front of me was a whole wall of windows letting in the remnants of the afternoon sun. Opposite them was a line of doorways.

We stepped to the left and walked past a series of rooms which looked like they may have been offices, before Terminus had been used for survivors. Most of the rooms were furnished with beds and desks and chests of drawers, and other mismatched pieces of furniture. It looked like each room housed between two and four people. There were obviously quite a number of people who were living here, but I had only seen a handful of them so far. I still hoped that I would find my sister here, and she had just been overlooked by Gareth.

We came to a room near the end that was empty save for a rolled up mattress in the corner. And a few neatly folded rough spun blankets. David stepped into the room looked it over and told me it would be ours for now. He wanted to share with Mix and I, until we were settled in, and I agreed, not entirely sure I wanted to be left alone with strangers. People stranger than David anyway.

“This seems like a pretty great place, I don’t know why you left.” I said to David while we made our way back to the car to get our belongings.

“It was a really great place, when we first got here. But then it started to grow and people started to have disagreements about the way things should be done. In the end I decided it was better for me and my boys if we just left and tried fending for ourselves.”

“But Gareth stayed behind?”

“Gareth was the one I had the most disagreements with.” David said with a frown.

“Do you think you’ll be able to get along together now?”

“I guess we’ll see.” David said in a tone lacking positivity.

When we got to the car, David popped the trunk and loaded me up with bags that were ridiculously heavy.

“What do you have in here?” I grunted, struggling under the weight.

“I brought most of the pantry with me.”

“You think they won’t have enough to feed us?” I enquired.

David shrugged his shoulders. “Might not have anything we like.” There was a look on his face that I didn't quite understand

I would eat anything they offered; I knew not to be fussy.

* * *

 

After we had unpacked our belongings, and I helped David tidy up and get rid of some of the dust that seemed to be bothering him immensely, David took me down stairs to show me the wash room. It looked to be a staff bathroom with ‘employees only’ written on the door. There were a line of basins and toilet stalls, and a few women were in there gossiping, but they left when I came in. I used the toilet, smiling the whole time at the thought of using an actually working, flushing toilet, with toilet paper. Then I washed my hands with cool fresh water, and real soap, and met David outside.

We went in to a large open hall, which was filled with tables and chairs and with lots of people. In the far side of the room were couches and small tables, bookshelves laden with books, a ping pong table and a large lit furnace.

I looked around at everyone trying to see a face I recognised, but they all looked like strangers to me. I examined the people here, they all looked peaceful and content, but at the same time they looked worn out. There was something that was a little off about the make-up of the group too. I looked around the room and realised there were no children. The youngest person there would only be about fifteen. I wondered what had happened to their children, but I didn’t think I would ever ask.

“David!” Called an excited female voice breaking through my thoughts.

David and I turned to see a woman in her fifties with auburn hair plaited over her shoulder. She had a friendly and welcoming face and she embraced David warmly and then turned to me.

He introduced Mix and I and told me her name was Mary, and Mary offered to get us a plate of food.

We found a spare table and sat down to it and we were soon overwhelmed with people coming to greet David and to meet me and give Mix a rub on the head. Mix looked uncomfortable with all the attention and whimpered softly and even growled at a few people.

Mary brought over a plate of cabbage and a slab of sizzling, flame grilled meat. I wasn’t sure what kind of meat it was. It wasn’t beef, I hadn’t seen or heard any livestock on the way through here, so I assumed it must be some type of wild game. I picked up my knife and fork and began cutting in to it.

David waved a hand in front of my plate and I looked up at him, he was looking over at Mary who was standing at the front of the room, with all eyes turned to her. She pressed her hands together and bowed her head and everyone followed her. I put down my knife and fork and did the same.

_“Lord, we thank you for the gifts which we enjoy at this table. As you have provided for us in the past, so may you sustain us into the future. May you bless those good souls who make sacrifice so we may have plenty. Amen.”_

_“Amen.”_ I repeated in unison with everyone else in the room.

I picked up my knife and fork again and glanced up to find David watching me with his eyes, shadowed by furrowed brows.

“You’re not having any?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Not sure you should either. The quality of the meat isn’t so great here.”

David pulled out a can of beans from his coat pocket and placed it on the table. “You want some beans?”

“No thanks, I think I’ll rather real food.”

I stabbed at the meat with my fork and placed it into my mouth and began chewing. As hungry as I was, it wasn’t very appetising. It had a chewy, stringy texture and was incredibly salty. I ended up spitting it into my hand and discreetly placing it back on the plate.

“Told you, you wouldn’t like it.” David said with a satisfied smirk and began spooning beans onto my plate.

I scoffed down the beans and the cabbage and then placed my plate on the floor for Mix to eat the leftovers. He sniffed around at the meat pushing it around the plate with his nose, whimpered and then placed his head on his paws looking up at me with his one big round puppy eye.

“You don’t like it either boy?”

I turned back to David. “Do you think it’s rancid?”

David nodded his head. “It’s definitely off.”

* * *

 

After we ate, a few ladies came over and cleared our plates away, wheeling them away on a rusted squeaking trolley. People were getting up and moving to the far side of the room to the furnace.

David and I got up and moved over to the others. Gareth was sitting among a circle of people with an acoustic guitar perched on his lap. My heart skipped a beat when I thought about hearing music again. David and I sat on a couch nearby and Gareth looked over to us and tipped his head.

The other lady Mary came and sat down on the other side of David and gave his arm a squeeze.

“I’m sorry about before, David. I should have asked if you would like to take the lead in saying grace tonight.”

David patted her hand. “It’s okay Mary. You say it better than I could.”

They smiled at each other and then turned towards Gareth who started strumming at the guitar.

He was playing a slow and sad riff, which sounded familiar, but I didn’t know what it was until he started singing.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,  
that saved a wretch like me.  
I once was lost but now am found,  
was blind but now I see.

Gareth was looking at David while he was singing and I knew it was a song especially for him. I looked over to David and half expected him to be smiling, but he had a look of shock on his face with a hint of anger. He sat there through the song red faced and with angry tears in his eyes, and when it was finished he got up to leave. I followed him out, jogging in an effort to keep up. As we made our way to the doorway, I saw a familiar pattern of red and black diamonds on a sand coloured back ground.

My heart leapt into my throat as I recognised it as Daryl’s Poncho. But Daryl had left it back at the prison. How did it get here? I drew my eyes up to see who was wearing it. She was just a plain woman with blonde hair, no one I recognised. Then I saw a sight that took my breath away. In her arms I saw the first child I had seen since coming here, not just any child, a baby, and the baby was Judith!

* * *

 

I sat up that night in the room with David cradling the sleeping Judith in my arms. I was far too overcome with emotion to sleep, and David looked to be in the same state.

The lady who had Judith claimed that her mother had arrived here with her a few days ago. She said her mother had been bitten and handed the baby over before going off to die. I racked my brain trying to think who it was. It definitely wasn’t Maggie or Sasha. Could it have been Michonne, or one of the governor’s people? I had told them that Judith was my sister, and they had accepted without question, so the woman who bought her would have to be at least old enough to be my mother. I wanted to ask what she looked like, but I didn’t want to raise suspicion and I was just so grateful to have Judith back in my arms that I didn’t really care how she had got there.

“I expected your sister to be older, the way you spoke about her.” David said stroking the back of Judith’s pudgy hand.

“She’s not really my sister.” I confessed. “But I knew her mother and father very well. I’ve taken care of her since the day she was born.”

“The lord must have been working overtime to bring you back together.”

I gave Judith a squeeze and said a silent prayer of thanks.

“Will you and Judith return with me now? To the funeral home?”

“Not yet, I need to find out more about my sister, if she came here and where she went.”

David frowned and then nodded his head in agreement.

“We’ll stay as long as you need to.”

The night wore on and we chatted about our families, and about the journeys we had taken since the outbreak, and David finally told me the story behind Terminus.

Back when this first happened, a group from David’s local church held up together. While out scavenging they came across a freight train on the tracks. They opened up the box cars and found they were piled high with rice and grains, enough to feed them all for a year or more. So they decided to follow the tracks to the train terminal to see what else they could find here. They ended up finding a gold mine of food, clothing, blankets - everything they needed to survive. It was all stored here in freight containers and on the trains. So they decided to make it their home.

They started taking in groups of survivors who came past, and as their numbers grew they had to put some kind of system in place to keep things from going anarchic. David had ended up being chosen as the leader, and he made all the decisions, including who they let in to the community. Eventually he let in the wrong people, and they got into a long drawn out battle that ended with many people losing their lives.

After the battle Terminus was left in a state of disarray and arguments began over the way to manage things in light of the new circumstances. Gareth and the others had ideas, but David didn’t like them. So he ended up taking his two younger boys and leaving with a few other followers.

After his sons had died, David had been lonely and he had considered coming back to Terminus to be with his last living son, but then he had found Mix and he had been quite happy to stay there, just the two of them. That was until I came along.

I felt guilty that I had dragged him back to a place with such hurtful memories, but I was also grateful to be in a safe place and with Judith back in my arms.

* * *

 

Judith woke up early the next morning and started fussing. David was still lying on his back snoring loudly, so I left him there with Mix for company and I ventured downstairs to see if I could find some food.

The mess hall was completely empty. I initially thought maybe they were all still in bed, but they must have gotten up early because cereal, powdered milk and breakfast bowls were still out on the trolleys. Judith and I ate our stale cereal and milk and then went to see if we could find where everyone had gone off to.

When I stepped outside I could hear a choir of voices chanting something. I followed the sound to a large brick building with high windows, and planter boxes filled with flowers outside. I stood under the window and listened to what they were saying.

It sounded like they were chanting some kind of Mantra.

_“Never again, never trust, we first, always.”_

They repeated the words three times and then a single voice started speaking. It sounded like Gareth’s.

_“The lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;_

_A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favour to the young:_

_And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee._

_And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trusted, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the lord thy God hath given thee._

_So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:_

_So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates…”_

It appeared to be verses from the bible, but I didn’t understand what it meant .He kept talking but I couldn’t hear what he said over Judith’s sudden frustrated wail.

I started bouncing Judith up and down in an effort to calm her and eventually she settled and started babbling to herself. I listened again to the voice in the room, but it was completely silent in there now.

After a moment Gareth came out of a nearby door. He smiled when his eyes fell upon me.

“Beth, you must come in, attend worship with us.”

I nodded my head and followed. It had been years since I had been to church and I was curious how they did things here.

I walked in the room to see around forty friendly faces staring back at me. A few of them called out “Welcome Beth.” In a cultish manner.

The room was a little bit freakish as well. It was lit with dozens of candles of all different shapes, sizes and colours filling every open space, and in the centre of the room surrounded by the other people was a circle of names, painted on the floor in black.

I stopped before it and inspected it. Gareth came up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

“These are the names of the people we lost.” He explained pointing down to the circle. “Several months ago we were attacked by a group of bad people. They held us to seige and near starved us all to death, but the lord showed us the way, and we survived. With the strength of our lord we were able to take back Terminus, and restore it to her former glory... We lost many loved ones, fathers, mothers, we lost all of our children, and all because of these bad people. You must understand it is very hard for us to let people in now, we must be absolutely sure they are good people.”

He smiled down on me and Judith and gave Judith a rub on the head.

“You’re good people, aren’t you Beth?”

* * *

 

After attending worship, Gareth assigned me a job of washing and mending the clothing. I happily sat out in the sunshine while Judy played on a blanket with plastic bottles filled with sand and stones. I listened to the women chatter, mainly about how handsome Gareth was, and about how thankful they were to have David back, and other little non important things that you would chatter about before the world fell apart. It very much felt like I could make this place my home.

After a short while, and a few dozen buttons, a man came racing along the path in an excitable state.

“We’ve got a rotter swarm coming in.” He called down to us, and kept running to inform the others. The women dropped what they were doing and clamoured to their feet. I picked up Judith and followed everyone to the outdoor dining area. Gareth appeared with the balding man, Neil, and a blonde boy with a broken nose.

“Swarm stations.” Gareth called to the crowd.

The crowd dispersed running off in all directions and Gareth walked over to me.

“You best take little Judith inside.” He advised me.

David came up behind him and placed a heavy hand on his shoulder.

“Let me take Judith, Beth here is quite the shot, you could use her.”

I nodded in agreement, anxious to get my hands on a weapon. David took Judith off my hands and Gareth led me over to the man with the broken nose.

“Get her armed, Ben, and get her out there.” He instructed pushing me towards him.

I followed Ben into a nearby building and up a set of stairs. He took me to a locked door, took out a key from his breast pocket and unlocked the door and then opened the door to what looked like some sort of armoury.

There were racks and shelves of ammunition and weapons ─ Rifles, hand guns, grenades, knives. But the ones that stood out most of all were a katana, and a crossbow.

* * *

 

The swarm they spoke of was a herd of walkers. There had been over fifty of them, stumbling towards the surrounding fences and pawing hungrily at the gates. I had taken down at least ten, but probably more. The rest had been taken down easily by the others, with no loss of life. I guess that was one of the benefits of living in such a large community.

Some men were sent out to clean up the mess, and I was forced to give back my rifle and go back to mending shirts. I did as I was bid, with my mind wandering elsewhere.

That was Daryl’s crossbow in the armoury, there was no doubt about it. He was still here, he wouldn’t leave his crossbow behind, and Michonne was here too. If Gareth had lied about that, then he had probably lied about Maggie too. They were all here ─somewhere.

When night approached, Gareth proclaimed that we would have a feast to celebrate our victory against the rotters. He told us the feast would be a late one as he had to order extra meat to be brought out from the stores. He then sent us off to get ready for dinner.

David and I went back up to our room with Judith and Mix. Once we were inside I closed the door and approached David angrily.

“My family _has_ been here!” I growled.

David hung his head in shame as if he knew about it all along. “I thought they may have been. How did you find out?”

“I saw my friend’s crossbow, and another friend’s Katana, and the poncho that woman was wearing, and Judith being here! I know they were here.”

David slowly slumped to the floor. “Your family, are probably gone.” He said softly.

“What do you mean gone?”

“The people here Beth, they have lost all trust in their fellow man. They do terrible things to outsiders.”

“What kind of terrible things?”

“Things I would rather not say.”

I glared at him waiting for him to tell me more.

“Look, if they are still alive, then I know where they’ll be.”

“Tell me where!” I screeched at him angrily.

“Follow the ‘A’s.”

* * *

 

I left Judith with David and snuck out of the room and down the stairs avoiding the crowd amassing in the mess hall. I had remembered seeing a large ‘A’ painted beside a door in that hall where we had worship so I headed back there.

The room was even creepier at night, with the light from hundreds of candles twisting the shadows on the wall. The fact that they kept these candles going all day and night was really creepy too. Who were these weird and obsessive people and what did they have planned for my family?

I exited out the door next to the ‘A’ and came to the outer circle of Terminus, surrounded by the chain link fence. There were a number of freight containers and box cars outside near the fence and I walked out towards them and inspected them in the darkness.

One of them had a large ‘A’ painted on it. So I walked over to it, climbed the steps undid the latch and pulled the heavy door open.

I couldn’t see anything inside, it was pitch black, but an awful smell was coming out of there, and I could hear the sounds of breathing. I stuck my head in and whispered.

“Hello?”

A body suddenly hurtled towards me from out of the darkness, and knocked me off the steps and to the ground below. I landed with a thump and shooting pain coursed through my hip and back. I went to defend myself against my attacker before I recognised the sobbing sound she was making as “Beth”.

I pushed the woman off me and saw the red and wet face of my sister.

“Maggie.” I squealed back, and then lowered my voice wondering if anyone was around. I hoped they had all been distracted by the big feast Gareth had planned.

“You’re okay?” I murmured.

“I am now.” Maggie said between sobs.

I was suddenly surrounded by bodies hugging me and kissing me and patting me on my head.

Sasha and Bob were there and Rick, Carl, Michonne and Glenn, and there were three other strangers too. I waited for Daryl to emerge, but he never came out.

“Where’s Daryl?” I asked turning to my sister.

The happy and relieved faces suddenly dropped into sadness.

Rick shook his head at me. “He’s gone, Beth.” Rick made to comfort me by touching my shoulder but I ducked away from him.

“What do you mean gone?” I snarled.

“They took him, these people. They’re not right.” He looked around to the others. “They eat other people.”

I knew these people creeped me out, that’s what they had been talking about in worship that day. I thought it was just an analogy, but they were actually preaching about eating people! And the meat ─ the awful tasting meat ─I had eaten it!

I felt the contents of my stomach rising through my chest and to my throat and I retched them on to the ground splattering vomit all over everyone who was close to me. They didn’t seem at all bothered by it, and just watched me with concern.

I felt my whole body go cold and my arms and legs were trembling uncontrollably with rage and disgust. A ringing was sounding off in my ears, my head was spinning and I thought I might pass out. Then Maggie gripped me by my shoulders and shook me back to my senses.

“Come on Beth, we have to go.” Maggie said while dragging me towards the fence.

“I can’t go!” I almost shrieked.

“We can’t stay here!” Rick growled.

“I have to get Judith!” I growled back.

Rick looked like I had just punched him in the guts, his mouth dropped open and his face turned white.

“Judith is here?” He gasped.

“She’s with David ─ my friend ─ she’s safe.” I started to turn but Rick grabbed my arm, and stopped me.

“You get Judith. We’ve got weapons buried near the fence, we’re gonna get ‘em and were gonna come back for you.”

I nodded in agreement. I would make sure Judith was safe, and I would find Daryl. He had to be okay, believing he was still alive was the only thing that could make me go on. I would find him, and if I found him in any state but whole. I would slaughter every maneater in Terminus.

* * *

 

I found David still in his room sharing some canned goods with Judith and Mix, he jumped startled when I burst through the door. I pounced on him like a wild animal and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and brought his face in so it was in line with mine.

“They eat people!” I snarled.

David looked shocked and bobbed his head up and down in an erratic nod.

“That’s why I left, I couldn’t bare it!”

I shook him again roughly. “They’ve taken my friend, my very dear friend!” I was crying now. I could feel the tears falling down my cheeks and landing on my arms. “Where would they take him, if they were going to _eat_ him?”

“To the killing floor. If you go back to the worship room and take the southern door, it’ll take you out there.”

I threw him to the ground and jumped to my feet.

“All hells about to break loose!” I proclaimed. “You three best stay low until it blows over.”

* * *

 

I knew where to go, and I knew I would have to get there fast, but I had one more stop to make. The armoury. I followed the buildings around retracing the path I had taken with Ben. I raced up the steps turned the corner and slammed straight in to Ben, who was now guarding the armoury door.

He steadied me by gripping my shoulders.

“Hey Beth, thought you would be at the feast with the others. What’s up?” He had a goofy grin on his face, completely oblivious to what I had planned for him.

The only weapon I had was the knife I had stolen from David back at the funeral home. The blade was thin, dulled and beginning to rust. I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to get it through his skull. A living skull would be firmer than a walker’s skull. My stomach lurched as I thought about how I would have to force the blade through flesh and bone, the sound it would make, the feel of warm blood on my hands. I had never had to kill a man up close before, a living, breathing, talking man. But in this world you did what you had to for the people you loved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would love it if Beth rescued them all in the canon, but I've heard you can make explosives with milk powder so, you know, it's unlikely.
> 
> *Warning*Graphic information and spoilers ahead*
> 
> I was told that in the comic books the Cannibals eat there own children! I noticed that at the end of season 4, there were no children anywhere. Would AMC let them go there??? I only hinted that they ate the children in this story and left it a bit ambiguous. I'll leave it up to your own imagination on whether they did or not.


	4. Extermination

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I don’t need people.” I sighed.
> 
> She glared at me.
> 
> “I just need you.”

It must have been the cold that woke me up. It was colder than I had remembered it being before, colder than I had felt for a long time. It felt as if my skin was bare against stagnant winter air. It was difficult to open my eyes at first. The light in the room was not bright, but my head was pounding like the beat to a heavy metal song, and the pulsating of the beats was building up in my head and pushing out behind my eyeballs. I pulled my hands down to my face so I cold swipe the back of my hand over my eyes and I found that both hands came together even though I didn’t will them too. I felt like I didn’t have control of my body, kind of like I was floating. My legs were so numb I had to look down to check if they were still there. My bare feet were suspended a few feet off the ground, with rope wrapped around my ankles like a coiled snake, and a hook and chain holding me to the ground. Floating in mid-air; another fucked up dream.

I ran my eyes over my body taking in the rope around my ankles then higher to the exposed hair on my bare shins, then to my scabbed knees, my pale, unbaked thighs and then…I was butt naked! I don’t know what it was with me having dreams about being naked lately, but it seemed to be happening again. I reached down instinctively to cover my dangler, and realised it was dangling the wrong way. It looked like a sad old man with a droopy long nose looking up at me. And my hands, they weren’t right either, they were held together by the thin plastic strip of a cable tie.

_Cable ties…_

The sudden shock of realising it wasn’t a dream, made me jolt backwards, and I felt myself starting to sway to and fro. I wasn’t hovering over the ground, I was suspended from the ceiling. The rope wrapped around my ankles, was draped over what appeared to be one of those butchers hooks that were used to hang animal carcasses. I recognised them as the same type my dad had in his hunting shack, where he would hang his game upside down, slit their throats and let the blood flow out, before he carved up the meat into portions.

I looked up above my head, which was actually down, and found a steel grated walkway about three feet below me. Tilting my head back up a little I could see the walkway stopped ahead of me and dropped down to a concrete floor. In the middle of that floor was a stainless steel table, and on top of that table were portions of pale meat, with dark red flesh and white bone exposed. There were parts that looked just like a beef shank, but it wasn’t beef I was looking at. Cows didn’t have elongated pink, fleshy feet with five rounded toes. Cows didn’t have long arms ending in hands with five slender digits. Cows didn’t have cocks, well not human fucking cocks.

I couldn’t see the face of the man that was laid out in sections on the table, surrounded by various butchery utensils – hack saw, a cleaver, a boning knife – but I immediately thought of Abraham who had been walking ahead of me before I had blacked out. I turned my head to the right and felt a wave of relief wash over me as I saw the ginger hair and trucker moustache over a slack mouth with a dull snore escaping it. He was dangling there naked much like myself, but with his arms bent behind his back.

“Abraham.” I called out in an effort to wake him. He didn’t move.

“Yer not s’posed ta be awake.” An unexpected voice drawled from my left, causing me to jolt and swing myself on the chain.

I turned my head towards the voice and found myself staring at a naked female body, bound at the wrists with cable ties and tied at the ankles with rope. The woman had dark hair that was sweeping over a metal bucket placed on the grating below, with a soft swishing sound. She was sleeping too, breathing softly with her chest rising and falling. The voice I heard was not her. It had come from a long stick of a man with wild, tightly curled, black hair, growing in tufts all over his scalp and face. He was dressed in a long, black vinyl butchers apron and he was holding a sharp, half foot long sticking knife in his hand.

“We be wastin’ a lot a energy chargin’ them stunners so that ye stay asleep.” He continued to drawl, without even looking at me.

He took to a knee in front of the woman and clasped his hands in front of him as if in prayer.

“Bless ye lord, for the gifts we are about to receive.” He spoke clearly, as if in rote.

He pressed the blade to her throat and dragged it across in a smooth and quick motion, freeing a line of red that soon fanned out spraying all over the man's apron. He took the bucket under her head and tried to catch some of the spray and then placed it back under her head, when the force of the spray subsided and started flowing out rhythmically as it was pumped out by her heart.

My own heart beat got faster as the pumps of her blood got slower.

“Ya gotta watch fer the blood ta stop pumpin’ so ye can destroy the brain afore the meat starts turnin’.” He informed me.

I watched in horror as he supported the woman’s head with one hand, drew the knife back in the other and slammed it into the side of her head with a wet pop.

“She ain't meat, shes people!” I croaked through my tight throat.

He stared at me blankly like a simpleton.

“Don’ like it when me meat talks.” He drawled.

He stood up, turned around and stepped off the metal grating and to the concrete floor below and scooped up another metal bucket, like the one beside me that was half filled with blood. He stepped back up and placed the bucket under my head.

“I ain't meat.” I growled.

The man was inspecting his sticking knife, wiping the blood along his apron.

“I ain't fuckin' meat!” I snarled louder.

The man bent to a knee before me and clasped his hands together, with the knife sticking out from his palm as he prayed.

“Bless ye lord for the…”

Before he could finish his prayer I had reached down and grasped the rim of the bucket in my fingertips, and using the momentum of my body swinging from the hook, I slammed the bucket upwards into the mans jaw, with a ringing clang, and watched in satisfaction as his knife went flying out of his grip and he fell back on the grated floor with a thump.

I reached down my tied hands and gripped on to his apron and using all the strength I had in my fingers I clutched in to the slimy fabric and started dragging him towards me.

“Danny, get in ‘ere.” He screamed, arching his head backwards and looking out past the steel table in the centre of the room.

“Oh, shit.” I heard another voice call, and saw a man bound down the step and grab for something small and black on a nearby shelving unit. He marched over to me militantly and reached the black object towards me revealing a thin line of blue electric current, jerking between two wire prongs.

He was about a foot away from me, standing over the butcher laying on the ground when he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

His eyes were wide in shock and his mouth dropped open to reveal something small and black emerging from between his teeth and tongue. It looked like a small conical metallic shape, kind of like the tip of a crossbow bolt.

The man fell to his knees, landing on top of the butcher and then toppled off him to the side.

Behind him standing at the far end of the room, up a high concrete step, I saw worn riding boots, thick woolen socks, the hilt of a small knife, jeans ripped at the knees, a yellow tee covered by a cream coloured sweater, thin pale hands holding my Stryker and a blonde haired, blue eyed angel with her head slightly bent to the side, and eye peering down the sight of the bow.

_No fucking way._

* * *

While I stared at Beth in a state of dumbfounded disbelief, the man below me rolled away grabbed for his sticking knife, and kicked his legs off the grate and to the floor below. He stalked over to Beth, growling something unrecognisable, with his knife held high.

Beth put the bow to the ground put her foot in the stirrup and struggled to pull the string to the latch. I mentally kicked my own ass, wishing I had let her try it a few times, instead of doing it for her. The man was only a knife lunge away and she was still struggling and straining.

“Beth!” I called out to her in fear.

I heard a familiar click and saw she had latched it in to place, but the guy was right on her now. She tossed my Stryker towards the butcher's head and darted away from him as he stumbled and tried to regain his balance. Beth was fumbling at her side, where I saw my Busse. She ripped the knife out but knocked it against a shelving rack behind her as she drew it up and it clanged to the ground. The butcher kicked out his foot and flicked the knife away out of her reach. I began swinging myself wildly hoping I could work my way off the hook, as I watched her dart around the hacked up body in the centre of the room.

Anxiety gripped my stomach as the man slashed towards her, but she dodged neatly out of the way grabbed for the cleaver on the table and swung it down into the top of the guys skull. The hit knocked him to the floor and blood was spurting from the wound but it wasn’t deep enough. He was still moaning and growling and reaching out to grab at her. She drew the cleaver up above her head with two hands and slammed it down harder into his skull. This time I heard the crunch of bone splitting and watched in relief as the butcher’s body collapsed to the floor.

She was gasping and breathing heavily, with wild eyes darting around the room, taking in the butcher with the cleaver embedded in his skull, the portions of human on the table, the man laying on the grating with a bolt sticking out the back of his head, and me hanging there naked with all my bits showing.

She steadied herself on the table and edged her trembling hands along it stepping towards me.

“Beth.” I called to try to shake her from her shock.

She raised haunted eyes to me, and I saw her shoulders drop in a staggered sigh of relief. She mounted the step on the grating, and then fell to her knees before me and pulled me in for a hug, with her face in my chest and my face in hers.

“That was too close.” She whimpered, into my bare skin.

“I’m so fuckin’ glad to see you, girl.” I said, trying to hold back a sob.

She nodded her head, sniffled and stifled a sob of her own, then wiped her tears away with the sleeve of her sweater. She had a big smile of relief on her face and I figured my face probably looked the same.

“Get me down.” I said, nodding my head backwards to where the chain from the hoist was attached to the wall.

She glanced over to it, and made to stand but then dropped back down again. She took my head in her hands and stared down at me.

“Say it.” She ordered firmly.

“Say what?” I had no idea what she was talking about.

“Say you need people.” She insisted.

“Quit playin’ girl and get me down.” I growled, annoyed at her choice in time to play games.

“I will when you say it.” She persisted.

“I don’t need people.” I sighed

She glared at me.

“I just need you.” I added.

Her big blue eyes widened and a grin grew on her face. She moved her lips down towards mine to give me a spiderman inspired kiss, which wasn’t appropriate for the time, but I was still willing to share it with her.

Then we were interrupted by a strained, dry voice to my right.

“Hate to interrupt your moment there, but do you think you could get me the fuck down from here?”

* * *

 

I never got the chance to give Beth that kiss, or even to tell her I was sorry about leaving her, or to ask her what happened to her. As soon as she had let Abraham and I down, and helped untie us, she was racing up the step and behind a wall saying something about Judith and the others.

Abraham and I stretched our legs, and slapped them a few times trying to get feeling back and then found our clothes up on a shelf. I collected my Stryker, and Busse that Beth had left behind. Abraham grabbed the cleaver and we left as hastily as possible, both of us trying to avoid looking at the bluish body of the woman hanging by her ankles, or the pieces of the man spread out on the table.

I stepped out the way Beth had come in, down through a corridor and then through a door that led into the freaky room we had ran though earlier, with all the candles and the names written in a circle. I made my way out the door that was marked ‘A’ and back towards the train car where I had last seen Rick and the others.

The door to car was wide open, so Beth must have already been through this way and let them go. I heard the jangling and clinking of shifting metal and saw some figures climbing over the fence across the way. I recognised the first one to jump down into the dying grass below, as Rick. He was holding a gun in his hand and when he spotted me watching him, he gave me a silent hand signal pointing to his eyes and then up to the roof. I nodded, understanding that he wanted me to scope out the roof.

I looked around for a way up and saw some wooden pallets lying against the wall under a louvered window. I used the pellets to reach the window and then climbed up the louvers digging my boots into the gaps and vaulting myself onto the nearby drain pipe. I dragged myself upwards pushing my boots into the joins of the brick work and then pulled myself onto the sheet metal of the roof, cringing as it creaked under my weight.

Once on top I lay still for a moment gauging if there was anyone around who would have heard me. Then I pulled myself up and silently crept over to the next roof that was a few feet above my head and grabbed on to it. With my feet dangling below, I had to stiffle a grunt when my chest landed against the sheeting, as I noticed a shadow moving a few yards away. As quietly as possible I lifted my feet up and rolled onto the top of the roof, being careful not to let my bow clang on to the metal.

Once on my feet I crept slowly over to the man who was obliviously looking down to the ground below. I flipped my crossbow onto my back and took out my Busse and crept up behind him, mimicking his slow paces. When I was sure he was completely distracted I pounced on him, holding my hand over his mouth and opening his throat so he couldn’t scream. Once he was down I forced my blade into his skull so he wouldn’t be able to sneak up on me later.

I went back to my kneeling position and scoped the surrounding rooftops that were lit up by the silver moonlight. It was like an open woodland of sheet metal grass, barren trees tied together with telegraph wire, and bushes of raised skylights and ventilation stacks. This was my new hunting ground, and the Termites were my prey.

There were two figures on the rooftop directly across from my position, another figure on the next building over, and then one that was across the open space of about ten yards. I took care of the two on the building next to me first. Hiding behind one of the stacks and taking one down when he approached, easing him to the roof so the fall of his body didn’t alert the other. Then I crept up behind the woman, and took her down too, without feeling the least bit of guilt about killing the fairer sex.

There was a small gap inbetween the building I was on and the next, but I didn’t want to risk jumping and alerting anyone so I eased my way down and then swung my legs out until they caught on the edge of the roof, and then propelled myself on to the metal. I crept up behind this guy in the same way as the others and took him down with my Busse again.

I wasn’t sure what Rick and the others were doing. I had expected to hear some kind of commotion by now, but all I could hear was the dulled down sounds of laughing and chatter coming from somewhere below. I went to the edge of the building and looked down to see if I could spot the others. There was no one down there, just the courtyard we had seen previously with the tables where creepy Mary had been cooking at the grill.

There was still one more figure prowling around in the darkness on the building across the courtyard. From my low position, laying on my front . I removed my Stryker from my shoulder and aimed it at the figure in the dark. I could just make out the shape of his or her head, but not the face. That was okay, I just needed to get them anywhere in the skull area. I was about to pull the trigger when he took a step forward pointed at me and started yelling.

I hadn’t realised I was laying out in the moonlight.

“Shit.” I mumbled to myself and then pulled the trigger sending the bolt straight into his forehead, and silencing him for good. I watched as his limp body tumbled off the roof and fell to the floor with a crunch and a splattering of blood, making artwork that would rival Picasso all over the concrete below.

I observed from my high position as people began running out of the building below me.

They were yelling and pointing and then I started hearing the gun shots firing in rapid succession, coming from below. They echoed into the empty night like hard and fast rain falling on tin. I knew Rick was down there, they had weapons and lots of them, by the sounds of it. People were pouring out like ants from a nest now, dispersing themselves throughout the arrangement of buildings, screaming, shrieking and shouting over the gunshots.

Some of them emerged with weapons and started firing back at Rick and the gang, so I took up my bow and shot out the last four bolts in my quiver, rolling on to my back to reload between shots. Then I got up and looked for a way down. I jumped from building to building, like an olympic hurdlist and slipped down onto a drain pipe. I was above a small access-way between buildings when I saw a man lingering in the darkness. I could see he had his eye on Carl who was standing out in the open with his back to the both of us, firing into the shrieking crowd.

With knife in hand I jumped down on the man before he could get a shot off, forcing the knife down into his skull. I watched him slump to the ground, with a surprised groan escaping his mouth. Carl whipped around at the sound with his gun aimed at me. He gave me a grateful tip of his hat when he recognised me and then raced off to find more Termites.

I caught up with Carl, Rosita and Tara who were lingering by the grill watching for unexpected movement. I raced around and collected my bolts from the corpses on the ground and placed them back in my quiver and slotted one into my bow.

I spent the next few minutes racing through the labyrinth of buildings, going up stairs and ducking my head into empty rooms, trying to find any signs of Termites and exterminate them if I did. I came across Michonne and Glenn who were doing the same. They gave me a focused glare and a nod of acknowledgment before we parted ways again.

I followed the path of buildings back around to the courtyard with the griller, where I had seen most of the people race out of, and walked into the open doors. I paced through a corridor beside a staircase and to large double doors that were opened in to some kind of mess hall. It was piled up with corpses and Abraham, and Maggie were walking through them, destroying the brains of the already dead to make sure they didn’t return.

Rick was standing in the centre of the room with Eugene, Rosita and Tara by one side. On the other side was Carl then an older man who would have been in his fifties or sixties, then a scruffy, familiar looking, white dog, and beside it was Beth.

They had a group of people on their knees in front of them, with their hands clasped behind their heads. When I got closer I recognised only two of the faces. One of them was the leader, Gareth, and the other was the creepy grilling woman, Mary, who had tried to serve us-what I now assumed to be human- when we first came to Terminus.

Bob was seated over on a bench , bleeding from the shoulder, with Sasha there tending to his wounds, but it didn’t look too serious.

Rosita, Tara and Eugene all had guns drawn on the Termites. Carl was crying and looking at his dads arms, and in Ricks arms was a pudgy pink bundle wrapped in a fraying blanket.

“Lil’ ass kicker?” I mumbled.

Rick turned to me and I could see his face was red and wet from crying.

I glanced to the ghostly, defeated faces of the Termites in the centre of the room.

“What’re we waitin’ for?” I asked, raising my crossbow, ready to finish them off.

“Rick held out a hand in front of the bow.”

“We’re not gonna kill them.” He advised me.

“Motherfuck. Why the hell not?” I snarled back at him.

“They’re victims of the need to survive.” He explained to me.

“They’re victims of my right foot.” I declared, jumping forward and driving my boot into Gareth's pretty face. Rick and the older man standing by him stepped forward to stop me.

“This man, took care of Judith, and he took care of Beth. His only request is that we spare their lives.” Rick informed me, pointing at the older man. I glared angrily at this stranger Rick was willing to spare the lives of shit for.

Beth placed a hand on the arm of the man and looked to me with pleading eyes. “This is David. He saved me from…from Anton.”

_Fucking Anton._

I could feel rage building at the mention of his name. David had rescued her, which meant she had been in some kind of trouble. What had that fucker done to her? The look Maggie was giving the pair of us made me think she had already explained it once. I wanted to drag Beth in for a hug, and tell her how sorry I was for leaving her with him, and to comfort her and let her comfort me. But I just glared at David cold faced. It was my own messed up way of showing appreciation.

“What are we gonna do then, huh? Let ‘em roam free in the wild? let ‘em hunt for their choice of _meat?_ ” I growled to Rick.

“I’m sparing their lives, but they’ll have no mercy.” Rick declared, glaring down at Gareth's bloody, swelling face.

* * *

 

We led the group of Termites back through the path of the ‘A’s and to the box car that had served as our prison for nearly a week. I grinned triumphantly as I watched the distraught faces of the surviving Termites march in to the darkness. I stepped forward once they were all in and gripped onto the handle of the door and started sliding it across.

A pale hand shot out and stilled the door. “What about food and water?” Gareth called out through the small gap in the door.

“You got plenty of food in there already.” Rick replied to him. He stared back toward me in disbelief and I rolled the door shut on his gobsmacked face.

“Enjoy your Termite steaks.” I called mockingly towards the door.

We turned around and made our way back up the ramp. Rick moved over to Beth's side and passed Judith to her waiting arms.

“Thank you for taking care of Judith.” He said sincerely. Beth smiled back at him.

“How did you find her? Daryl said you two were alone.” Rick continued.

Beth glanced back to me, and I thought maybe she was thinking I had told Rick what had happened. But I hadn’t – yet.

“She was already here, a woman brought her here. I thought it must have been one of you.” She replied.

Rick stopped in his tracks, and looked around to Maggie, Tara and Rosita, and shook his head.

“She didn’t come with any of us.”

“Well, who…?” Beth trailed off.

Rick was deep in thought. “You know, when we came in here, we heard people callin’ from some freight containers. You think there could be more survivors in there?” He said looking at me.

“One way to find out.” I replied.

* * *

 

We made our way back to the freight containers we had seen earlier when we were running through Terminus. Rick placed his hands on the latch ready to open it and turned his head back to me.

“Think they’ll still be livin’?” He asked.

“I’ll get ‘em if they ain't.” I said, readying my Stryker.

He unlatched the doors with a clanking and grinding. And flung them open and stood back with his weapon drawn.

We watched and waited for someone to come out.

The first people out were a man and woman, pale and dirty with a look of terror on their faces. They moved gingerly past our drawn weapons holding their arms in the air. They relaxed a little when the girls started giving them comforting words and pats on the back. Then more people came out. I counted thirteen in total. They all looked terrified and were trembling, standing with their backs to the nearby brick wall.

“We’re not going to hurt you.” Rick advised them. But they still looked terrified.

Then I heard a weak and familiar voice call out my name from within the darkness of the freight container. From out of the shadows stepped the slender, and short grey haired Carol followed closely by Tyreese’s hulking frame. Carol flew straight into my arms, burying her head into my chest and sobbing. I pushed my bow to the side so I could return the embrace.

“You’re alive!" She mumbled into my chest.

“You made it!” I said back.

Carol pulled away from me and looked to Rick.

“I’m sorry Rick, I had Judith, but they took her away. I don’t know where she is.” Carol told Rick while fat tears rolled down her cheeks.

“She’s here.” Said Beth stepping forward and presenting Judith to her.

“It was you?!” Rick exclaimed. “You brought her here?”

Carol looked to Tyreese and they both nodded.

Rick tugged Carol away from me and pulled her in for a firm hug, rocking her back and forth and chuckling to himself. Carol looked up at him and started chuckling too, and I could see that whatever rift there had been between them, had now been repaired.

We all came in and gave Carol and Tyreese a hug, or a kiss or a pat on the back. We were so grateful to have our group back together again, and nobody who was injured beyond repair. Rick went over to talk to the other survivors that had come from the container.

I had my eyes on Rick when I heard Beth say something that sounded so wrong in her sweet voice.

“Sonofabitch!”

I turned to see what she was talking about, and I saw her suddenly pounce on a male figure. She knocked him to the ground and started clawing at his face.

“Screw you!” She shrieked.

I looked down on the dark skinned hands covering the face protectively against her claws, and I knew immediately who it was.

“Mothafuck.” I growled and then dragged him out from under Beth by his shirt. I held him up with his arms pinned behind his back while Beth threw punches and kicks into him. Her pretty face was red and covered in sweat and her pony tail swung around wildly. Anton kept slipping to the ground but I would drag him up so that she could keep laying into him.

Carol jumped in and made a grab for Beth’s flying fists. “What are you doing?” She cried.

“He tried to…he did something terrible.” Beth shrieked back.

“He’s a good person. I talked with him ─in there─ he’s really nice.” Carol insisted.

“He’s good at playing you false.” Beth declared angrily.

“They’re fucking crazy.” Anton said after spitting out a mouth full of blood

“Shut the fuck up motherfucka.” I said smacking him across the head before I started dragging him away from the others.

“Where are you taking him?” Carol asked.

“Puttin’ ‘im in with the others, they’ll make good use of ‘im.”

Beth reached into her boot and pulled out a rusty steak knife, with the tip snapped off. She held it up in front of me. “Here, they might need this.” She said pressing it into my palm.

She turned to Anton and gave him a sly grin which was surprisingly sexy. "This is for Claire." She murmured.

I relished in the thought of the Termites sawing away at Anton’s flesh for hours with that dulled, useless blade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I write this story how I see it played out in my mind. So it's kind of like watching an episode of TWD. There are some bits of the story that are missed, simply because they are discussions that are had without Daryl or Beth. In this case it was coming to the decision too spare the lives of the last remaining Termites.
> 
> Now that there are other characters involved, you ill find there will be a lot of 'off scene' discussion. I hope it doesn't get too confusing for you.
> 
> Next chapter, back to smut! :)


	5. Washed Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’m so fuckin' sorry! I’ll never leave you again.” ~Daryl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I recommend reading chapter 8 of an Unexpected Journey before reading this chapter :) http://archiveofourown.org/works/1294969/chapters/2923966

The morning after we had taken Terminus, I woke up in a room that I could call my own once more. I had slept alone, in the squeaky cot bed, kept warm with layers of woven blankets and with Mix sleeping on my feet. There was no body else to share this room. Now that the population of Terminus had been reduced by half, there were plenty of rooms to go around. The room was only a little larger than my cell at the prison. Much like the cell it had no windows except a small foot by foot panel of opaque glass in the door, which had a number '12' painted on to it. There was an office desk in the corner, and a worn office chair that was frayed and losing its stuffing. There was also a high bookshelf, but it only had one or two books on it. The shelves were mainly taken up by folded clothes and other odds and ends that had belonged to the room's previous inhabitants. On the floor by the bed was another roll out mattress that must have been used by the second person who shared this room. I had tried to encourage Mix to sleep there last night, but he preferred my bed, and I was grateful of his comforting warmth. I didn’t want to be on my own, but David had moved to his own room now, and Maggie and Glenn were sharing, and Daryl…

Daryl and I had barely spoken last night, with all that happened. We didn’t get a chance to discuss if we would be sharing a room. We didn’t even get a chance to discuss what was happening between us. He had been on watch for the first part of the night, while I was figuring out which room I would take, and he had obviously found somewhere else to sleep after his watch had ended, while I was sleeping soundly with only Mix for company.

I pushed Mix gently off my feet and he lazily dropped to the floor below and stretched out his front paws. I got out of the creaking bed and pulled on my boots and my sweater, thinking about the other clothes in the room and if I dared to wear them. I was going to have to get a new wardrobe and new furnishings, and make this room my own, if we were going to be staying here.

Once I was dressed, and had pulled my hair into a presentable pony tail I went downstairs, with Mix padding by my side.

I found Rick, Michonne, Carl and Judith in the mess hall, standing over a pile of weapons, making an inventory of them.

“Mornin’ Beth.” Rick said to me as I walked in.

Carl and Michonne both mimicked a “Mornin’” to me aswell.

I strode over to Judith and gave her a kiss on the cheek, and then made my way towards the pile of clean china bowls.

Rick’s eyes followed me with a grateful smile on his lips as I organised a bowl of stale cereal for my breakfast. We had a long talk last night, and I had been overwhelmed with the grateful appreciation he had showered on me, for freeing them all and taking care of Judith.

“Seen Daryl?” I asked him as I munched on my cereal.

“Just left. Goin’ huntin’.” He advised me. He pointed to my bowl of cereal. “There ain’t much in the way of food here, but cereal and milk powder. There’s some cabbages and corn, but it’s not gonna last the lot of us for long.”

I swallowed my last mouthful of cereal and then pushed my bowl to the side and hastily got up.

“I can hunt too.” I declared.

“I bet you can.” He said with a grin. “We already got a couple out there, but we could use someone extra.”

“I’ll go with Daryl.” I insisted.

“Sure. He’s gone out the south gate. If you run you should be able to catch him.”

I nodded my head and then stepped forward examining the layout of weapons before me. My eyes rested on the big black bow that had belonged to Len. I bent down and scooped it up, and counted the arrows in the quiver. Rick gave me an approving nod and grin, and I raced out of the hall to find Daryl, with Mix trailing behind me.

* * *

 

I passed though the southern gate and took note of the newcomer, Abraham - the one who had been hanging naked with Daryl - who was swearing at the stack of half charred bodies that were piled in a mountain of limbs outside. They had tried burning them last night, but then the clouds had opened up to rain and put the fire out. It had rained unseasonably all night, making the sheet metal roofing roar. It had been a deafening sound, but it had also been kind of relaxing, and it was probably what had given me such a deep and rested sleep.

I gave a sympathetic shrug of my shoulders as I passed him, and he shook his head in disappointment and sighed dejectedly.

I could see the dark figure of Daryl walking off into the woods ahead of me, and I chased after him calling out his name. He stopped and turned and waited for me to catch up.

“What’re ya doin’.” He asked me with a friendly smile, that looked a little awkward on his face. He gave Mix a rub on the head in greeting.

“I’m comin’ huntin’.” I replied, presenting him with Len’s bow.

He looked the bow over with a frown on his face.

“That big-ass thing?” He said pointing at the bow. “It’s twice your size, girl.”

I gave my shoulders a shrug. “I thought it would be kinda cool to have two archers in the group. You could teach me couldn’t you?”

He glanced down at his own crossbow, and then held it out for me. I took it in one hand, and then he grabbed for Len’s bow and I let him take it.

“You look better with my Stryker.” He said regarding me with a grin. He brought his hand up to his chin and began rubbing it between his thumb and forefinger thoughtfully. “No. _Your_ Stryker.” He corrected, flicking a finger towards me.

Was Daryl _giving_ me his crossbow? I was completely dumbfounded and I just gaped at him in wide eyed disbelief. Daryl had been the crossbowman from the start. It was part of who he was. I would dare say it was his most prized possession, aside from his leather vest. This was big, this was basically like him handing me an engagement ring. He grinned at my shocked facial expression and then turned his head to the bow in his hands.

“Bowtech 101st Airborne.” He muttered looking it over. “Been a while since I used one of these.”

* * *

 

We trudged through the open woodland in a comfortable silence, enjoying the peaceful tranquillity, and the fresh smell of wet pine. We would steal glances at each other every now and then, while we poked around in the leaves and bushes looked around for animal tracks. The trees eventually thinned out and we came to a creek about twenty yards wide, filled with the winter rains of last night, which ran rapid tumbling over rocks and crashing down in bubbles of white.

“You remember after we left the prison, the first time we went and washed in that creek?” I reminisced.

“How could I forget? You got one fat leech on ya and you came rushin’ out screamin’ blue murder.” He chuckled, waving his hands in the air mockingly. “Thought some water walker had grabbed ya.”

I gave him a playful push. “You had to pull it off me, ‘cause I couldn’t get a grip on it.”

“Yeah and it was right up your thigh, and your panties were all wet and I could see everythin’. Man I thought I would lose my mind.” Daryl said with a huge grin on his face.

“You could see everythin’?” I enquired curiously.

Daryl dropped his eyes sheepishly and red crept up his neck like he had just been caught out doing something naughty.

“Daryl Dixon, how long have you been thinkin’ of me like that?” I asked.

“Like what?”

“Like someone you might want?”

“I dunno.” He said with a shake of his shoulders, still looking down and avoiding my eyes.

“How long.” I asked again bending my head so I could look at his face.

“Thinkin’ it was back when Zach died, and I came told you, you ‘member?”

I nodded sadly thinking of the night they had come home from the supply run minus Zach.

“You hugged me, and yer sweater fell of yer shoulder, and it looked so clean and white and smooth. Man, I felt like such a creep thinkin’ of you like that when your boy had jus’ died.”

I was jerking my head up and down, nodding as I remembered. That was the first time I had held Daryl like that, and he had felt so warm and familiar, and if I hadn’t have been thinking of Zach at the time, I might have been thinking of Daryl the same way he was thinking of me.

“Wow! That long huh?” I murmured, coming to realisation that Daryl had been attracted to me, before I had even been attracted to him.

“I guess.” He said with a shrug, peering up at me with a small grin on his face.

“I’m real sorry Beth.” He continued.

“About what?”

“'bout what I said before, 'bout you making me feel guilty. That’s not why I did it.”

“I know.” I said giving him a gentle reassuring tap on the arm.

“I really do care about you.” He added.

“I know.” I repeated.

“More than just a friend.”

My heart beat leapt into my throat and crept up my face settling on my lips as a smile. “I know.” I repeated again.

“And I’m sorry ‘bout leavin’ and makin’ you worry ‘bout me.”

I nodded my head accepting his apology. “I’m really sorry about hittin’ you.” I apologised back.

“The hittin’ didn’t bother me none.” He glanced up at me with his head cocked to the side. He was running his hands over his new bow nervously. “Being called a dumbass redneck hurt, ‘cause it was the truth, but I never had no-one callin’ me degenerate before…to my face.”

He looked so sad, and hurt by my previous words. I drew him in to me for a hug, and he wrapped his free arm around my shoulders, pulling me against him.

“You’re not a dumbass, or a degenerate. You may be a bit of a redneck, but you’re my redneck.” I said into his chest.

He gave a little chuckle and rubbed over my shoulder.

“Yeah, guess I am.”

I lingered in his warm and strong embrace for a moment, taking in the familiar smell of sweat and dirt and wet pine. I allowed my senses to be overwhelmed with the smell, and touch and sight of him, absorbing them all together in my body and feeling it respond with a sharp jolt between my legs.

From my position with my head on his chest I turned my head upwards, and waited for him to look down and meet my gaze.

“Think you need to give me another lesson.” I suggested.

“In huntin’?”

“No. In keepin’ real quiet.”

I examined his face as I watched his eyes grow wide in realisation of what I was talking about. The last time he had taken me out hunting, he had tried to give me a lesson in keeping real quiet under pressure. I knew I had failed miserably, but we had been interrupted before he was able to give me a final evaluation.

Daryl let the bow in his hand drop to the ground. Then he placed both hands on the side of my face and pulled me towards him for a kiss. It was a wet, hot, passionate kiss; the type that sent chills through my body and left me gasping for air. He ran his fingers over my shoulder and slipped them under the strap of the crossbow and lifted it over my head and dropped it down on top of his bow. Then he put his hands on to my back and pulled me against his chest. He put his mouth to my lips and took my lower lip in his teeth, biting down gently and drawing back on it, until it had sprung free.

The new style of kissing left me trembling at the knees and wanting for more. I pushed my lips against his and returned a kiss of lustful fury, using my tongue, lips and teeth to assault his willing mouth. The kiss continued while he ran his hands over my body, to my backside and up my shirt exposing my skin to the freezing winter air. The sudden cold, mixed with the fire already in my blood made me moan, and he chuckled lightly at me.

“So you still wanna do it out in the wild like animals, huh?” He murmured into my mouth.

“Yes, Mr Dixon.” I whispered, my lips brushing gently against his.

He pulled away from me, and grabbed at his poncho and pulled it over his head. He took it in two hands and shook it and then spread it on the damp ground by our feet. Then he turned back to me, grabbed me by the back of my thighs and lifted me up so my legs wrapped about him above his waist. He spun me around and then went to his knees and lay me gently back down on his poncho.

He sat back and began placing firm kisses against my inner thigh, pressing them against my jeans, and then moved down my bent leg to the crotch of my jeans and growled hot air between my legs. I giggled at him, and ran my fingers through his long, dark hair.

I heard a low whimper from my side and we both turned our heads to Mix, who was sitting by us, watching our little performance, and looking as anxious as a dog could look.

“Think maybe he doesn’t like to watch?” Daryl asked turning back to me.

His question was answered when Mix let out another whimper and then darted off in to the woods.

Daryl went back to kissing me, moving his mouth upwards, over the fly of my jeans and to my bare naval, lifting my shirt as he made his way upward.

My skin was all gooseflesh, both from the cold air, and from the exhilaration of his hot wet lips against my skin. He continued to push my shirt up to my bra and then, slipped his fingers under the wiring and pushed that up over my breasts too, so that everything was bundled up on my neck. My nipples drew tight as the freezing air fell on them.

He stopped suddenly, and I looked down on his face that was glaring at my breast.

“What happened here?” He asked, and I remembered that Anton had bit me there, and there was still a faded blue circular mark left behind.

“That was Anton, he bit me.” I told him.

He clucked deep in his throat, and then swallowed hard.

“How close did he get?”

“Pretty close, but I got away. Nothing happened.” I reassured him, stroking firmly over his broad shoulders in a comforting manner.

“I’m so fuckin' sorry! I’ll never leave you again.” He declared passionately before putting his lips back to the mark and kissing it gently.

His mouth moved down against my rock hard nipple and he drew it into his mouth and began suckling on it, until it was warm and supple, and I was groaning in delight.

I began unbuttoning his shirt, while he made his way back and forth between both my breasts, trying to get his mouth over my nipples before they turned hard in the cold air again.

He sat back on his knees and tugged at my belt loosening it and then he undid my jeans exposing my underwear. He sniggered a little at the sight.

“You got some new panties?” He asked.

I crooked my neck a little to see what he was talking about.

“Yeah, while I was out with David, found a pack unopened. They’re a little bit small, but you know, can’t turn down clean underwear.” I had lost my last pair of underwear back in the warehouse with Len, and had felt awkward walking around without any on.

“Did ya have to get ones with kittens all o’er ‘em?” He said, running his finger over the frilled elastic waistband. I giggled thinking of the child’s underwear I had grabbed.

“Yer makin’ me feel like a real creep ya know?” He said, as he slipped his fingers into the top of the underpants and started pulling them down with my jeans.

He dragged my jeans down removing my boots and socks along with them as he pulled them off. My legs were trembling before him, but only in anticipation. I couldn’t even feel the cold anymore.

He undid his belt and fly and pulled his jeans down his thighs and then pushed his bare skin against mine.

I rubbed my hands over his exposed chest and down across his abdomen and then around under his shirt to his back, feeling the ridges of the scars. I pulled him towards me, as he pressed himself into me, gliding in slowly through the slick wetness, letting me feel him enter inch by inch. I let out a throaty groan, forgetting all about our lesson.

He put his hands under my arms and pressed on my shoulder blades, pulling my against his chest, and he kissed my neck and ear while he drove himself into me with long deep thrusts. He let out a few desperate groans in to my ear and I moaned loudly up into the canopy of trees above, and it was clear that we had both failed the lesson.

He continued to drive in to me for what felt like an eternity. I lost all sense of time and location as my mind and body ascended into heavenly bliss. I was only drawn out of my state when I felt him suddenly still above me. I opened my eyes to see what had made him stop. And followed his gaze over my head to see a walker was approaching in filthy and tattered clothes, with grey skin sagging off its skeletal frame. It was moaning through a gaping mouth with its arms outstretched stumbling towards us.

Without even waiting for Daryl to say or do anything, I reached to the side and grabbed for the crossbow. Then holding the bow upside down I aimed it up towards the Walkers chin, and shot the arrow up into its skull. It fell slowly to its knees and toppled to the side landing only a few feet away from us.

I dropped the bow above my head and looked back to Daryl who was glaring at me with a baffled look on his face.

“What?” I said, with a shrug of my shoulders.

“That was…kind of a turn on.” He said before putting his lips back to my neck and mouthing over the column of my throat while he continued to drive in to me. My lips drew into a wide grin and I allowed myself to moan loudly, not caring who or what heard me.

When he had reached his climax he pulled himself out of me and emptied on to the dirt beside the poncho, with a staggered groan. He looked back at me when he was done, breathing heavily with his bare chest rising and falling noticeably.

“We’re gonna need to get some rubbers.” He said. “That’s gettin’ harder to do every time.”

* * *

 

We took time redressing, mostly as we were distracted by our hands and lips moving all over each other’s bodies, filled with our remaining lust. When we were finally done, he pulled me up off the poncho and picked it up and gave it a shake, then pulled it back over his head.

“Smells like you?” He said sniffing at the fabric.

“Is that good?” I asked.

“Yeah, but might be kind of distractin’.”

We both grinned at each other and then went to pick up our bows. I drew up on the string to reload it and he watched as my muscles flexed and strained until it latched into place. I looked up at him, and he gave me a look of pride. I nocked an arrow into place and then swung the bow upwards while turning back to the creek.

I stopped suddenly, mid-turn, as I spotted a large stag, with bone coloured antlers growing out of its head like barren tree branches. It was making its way down the embankment of the creek, completely oblivious to our presence.

Daryl looked to me and nodded, indicating that I should take a shot. I silently took to a knee and shot the crossbow sending the bolt directly into its eye. It let out a small shriek and then fell to the ground.

“Well done!” Daryl marvelled, before giving me an encouraging pat on the back. “Don’t think you need me at all no more.”

I grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him in for a rough kiss.

“I will always need you.” I informed him firmly.

We both stalked over to where the Stag was laying on the embankment. Its heavy body was slowly slipping against the leaves towards the rushing water. It looked like it was going to be real heavy and I wondered if we were going to be able to carry it back to Terminus.

Daryl was looking down at the embankment determining a safe path down so he could get a good hold of the stag. He placed his bow on the ground, and then began easing his way down, to the stag’s head, where he grabbed hold of the antlers and began trying to drag it back up. I watched him as he struggled and strained, and then put my bow down ready to go and give him aid, but halted when I saw his boot sink into the mud and then him slip down the embankment dragging the stag down with him.

I watched in horror as he fell into the icy water, with the stag slamming up against him, so he was knocked down under the water towards the rocks below. He was now rolling and tumbling through the rushing water, trying to grip against the protruding rocks. I ran alongside him on the bank of the creek trying to catch up to him. I let out a squeal as I saw him knock his head against one of the sharp rocks and go under the water.

“Daryl!” I shrieked, as I darted down the more gentle slope and splashed my boots into the chilly water. I was momentarily relieved when his head came back up coughing and spluttering, with blue fingers gripping against the nearby rocks. He managed to drag himself over to me slowly and I met him half way and tried to pull his heavy body out of the water. His soaking boots and clothing were pulling him down and I grunted and groaned and strained trying to tug his weight through the rushing water.

He was getting so heavy, and my arms were trembling with fear, cold and overexertion and I had the horrible thought that I was going to let go of him and he would go tumbling down the creek and out of sight.

Just when I thought I couldn’t hold him any longer, I felt his body suddenly get lighter. I looked down to see the wet, matted clumps of fur and teeth of Mix, pulling on his poncho and helping me drag him back to the bank. When we got there I fell down beside Daryl utterly exhausted. Daryl was trembling beside me on the dirt. His wet hair was pasted to his forehead, his teeth chattering uncontrollably and his lips and hands were blue.

“F…f…f… fuck!” He chattered, watching as the Stag tumbled down the creek, lost forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! I'm so sorry about that last chapter. It had soooo many errors. I work and have kids, and I do my writing at night when they're in bed, and most of the time I'm real tired. It seems no matter how many times I proof read it, I'm still missing things. Will try harder next time.


	6. Heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "There are no children in this shit-hole world no more." ~ Daryl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to say that I am a huge Carol fan, and this is in no way a dig at Caryl shippers. Its just part of a larger story I'm working towards. Carol may seem totally OOC here, but my reasoning shall all be revealed in time.

I was fucking cold. And numb. And feeling like a useless asshole, being dragged by a girl half my size through the woods in my heavy, sodden clothing.

My thoughts were all on getting hypothermic and dying. After all the danger I had been in over the last few years -heck over my entire life!- Daryl Dixon was going to be taken down by the mother fucking cold.

Beth had been struggling under the weight of me for at least an hour, probably longer. She was panting and puffing and sweating despite the cold. She had stumbled and dropped me in to the dirt half a dozen times and then struggled to pull me back on to her shoulders, while ignoring my unintelligible grunting of " _Just leave me the fuck here."_

It was Rick and Abraham who spotted me first, being dragged across the tracks with my lifeless, numb feet trailing through the rocks. Rick had thrown Judith Beth’s way and then took me over his shoulder with Abraham on the other side and rushed me in to the mess hall with the furnace.

Rick ordered everyone out of the mess hall for the day, and sent Beth away telling her I needed privacy. Beth had given me a concerned look and then obediently taken Judith away. Rick dropped me onto the couch and with the help of Abraham began ripping of my clothing, cussing, and hissing and growling about cutting it all off. He had managed to get me butt naked without the use of scissors, much to my relief, and now I was lying on the couch in front of the furnace, wrapped in layers of blankets and trembling uncontrollably.

The closest thing we had to a doctor at Terminus was Bob, and he was called on in to examine me. He came in with his arm all bandaged up from where he had been shot when we took Terminus. He had brought along a medical kit from the Terminus infirmary, which was pretty well stocked. He put some plasters on my minor cuts, and examined some of the bruises and then took my temperature and my pulse, and monitored my breathing for a few seconds.

“You’re still shivering, so that’s a good sign.” He commented, once he had finished prodding and probing me.

“I’m f..f..fucking c…c…cold.” I chattered.

“You’ll live. We just got to keep you warm.” He insisted. “Lucky you’re so fit, or it could have been a lot worse”

“I d..d..dont feel fit.” I chattered. “I f..f..feel like sh…shit.”

“If you didn’t smoke, your recovery would be even quicker.” He added with a chuckle.

“I…h…haven’t in w…w…weeks.” I replied. Why did he have to remind me of that? As if I wasn’t in enough pain as it was.

“That’s good, you should be back to normal in no time then.” He patted me gently on the shoulder and then walked off out of the room, meeting Beth at the door with Judith in her arms.

Beth asked the doc how I was doing and if I was allowed visitors. Bob gave her a rundown basically telling her I was being a big sook and told her she could stay for a short while, because the big baby needed his sleep.

She knelt beside me with Judith on her lap and put her burning hands to my trembling shoulders, and tried to hold them still.

“I’m so sorry Daryl, I should have helped you with that Stag.” She said with a frown creasing her pretty brow.

“N...n...no. W...we would have b…b…both been screwed.” I let out a big sigh, exhausted from the effort of speaking.

She put her head to my chest and gave me a squeeze.

“Look at you all wrapped up and helpless like a little baby.” She lifted her head and looked at me with eyes full of mocking.

“I ain’t h…h…helpless.” I lied.

“Yes you are.” She said squeezing my cheeks and speaking to me through pursed lips like I was a Judith. “You’re like lil ass kicker.” She chuckled, nodding her head down to Judith who was pawing at my layers of blankets.

“I’ll k…k…kick _your_ ass.” I chattered.

“K…k…kick my ass will you?” She teased.

“S…stop.” I pleaded playfully.

“On baby, I could stay here and play with you all day, but I got another baby to take care of.” She pulled the blankets under my chin, as if she was tucking in a child. “Rick’s busy sorting out the other survivors, and organising food. You know leader stuff. I said I would take Judith for the day. I’ll be back later to check up on you.” She gave me a quick kiss on the forehead and then stood up. “Make sure you get some rest, _sweety_.”

If Beth was happy to tease me, I must not be as close to death as I originally thought.

* * *

 

I did fall asleep sometime after that. All the trembling and shaking and teeth chattering had been exhausting. It was the clinking of steel against china that woke me up. It was dark out, I must have slept through lunch and dinner. My stomach started growling at the sight of Carol who was kneeling beside me with a bowl in her hands.

“I made you some chicken soup.” She said presenting me with the bowl.

I sat up and pulled the blankets up to my chin, trying to keep the warmth in.

“Well I didn’t make it, I got it from a can. That David fella had one especially for you.” She said with a grin.

“That’s cool.” I said taking the bowl gratefully and resting it on my knees. I immediately started spooning the soup in my mouth. It tasted pretty great for canned soup. I hadn’t spoken with David much since I first met him, but one day I would have to make the effort to talk with him and thank him for saving Beth, and for the soup.

“We’re struggling for food, you know.” Carol said while watching me scoop the soup into my mouth.

“No-one brought anythn’ in today?” I asked referring to the hunting groups that had all left this morning at the same time as me.

“No. Nobody saw anything. Too bad you lost that deer.”

I groaned thinking about the wasted meat that would be rotting on a creek bed somewhere.

“Can’t believe how dumb I was, losing it like that.” I thought out loud.

“Don’t you call yourself dumb, mister.” She said poking me playfully on the tip of my nose. “You’ve taken care of the lot of us for some time now, ‘bout time we returned the favour.”

I was finished with the soup now, and she made to wipe at my lips with the sleeve of her sweater. I flinched away from her touch.

“You took care of _me_ the most, Daryl. Now let me take care of you.” She said, pushing the fabric to my lips, and blotting gently. I allowed her to continue, feeling like an incompetent child.

“Was nothin’” I insisted.

“You care about me though, don’t you?” She asked, collecting the bowl and then putting it on the nearby end table.

“Yeah ‘course I do.”

She knelt back beside me. “Good, I need someone to care for me.” Her face fell into a frown. “I’ve been feeling so…empty…since.” She gave a choking sound and then looked up to the ceiling and sighed.

“What’s up? What happened?” I asked.

She pressed her lips together like she was holding back a sob and gave a shake of her head.

“I killed her, Daryl.” She muttered.

“Killed who?”

“I killed Sophia.”

I thought about Carol’s little girl, and how we had lost her all that time ago. I had fought so hard to find her, and it had crushed me when we discovered she had been turned to a walker and locked away in Hershel’s barn. Carol never really spoke about her, and I thought maybe she had got over it all, but I guess it still upset her some, and it seemed she blamed herself.

“Nah, that weren’t your fault.” I insisted, trying to comfort her.

“It _was_ my fault Daryl. I made her look at the flowers and then I shot her in the back of the head.” She let out another choked sigh.

“What’re you talkin’ ‘bout? Sophia was bit by a walker.” I reminded her. Was I hearing right? Maybe the cold had done something to my brain.

“No. No she wasn’t. I killed her. I killed my little girl.” Carol insisted.

Carol threw her head down into my chest and started sobbing. I stroked my hand through her greying hair and shushed into her ear trying to comfort her, the best way I could.

I had no idea what she was talking about, she sounded like she was confused. She must be suffering through some kind of post-traumatic stress. I wasn’t used to this kind of stuff, girls crying all over me. I didn’t really know how to make her feel better. I kept up with the strokes on her head and along her back and I instinctively pushed my lips into her forehead. That was Beth’s fault. She was the one who taught me how to care about people.

Carol turned her head upwards and pushed her lips into mine, and began mouthing at them. I let her linger there for a few seconds trying to figure out what the hell was happening. When my brain had caught up to my body I grabbed her by her shoulders and jerked her back, as far as I could, with my weak arms.

“Whoa, hold up a minute there.” I said, holding her at a safe distance.

Her face was still wet with tears. She drew her hands up to my face and started running her fingers through the hair on my chin.

“You’ve always been so good to me, Daryl.” She murmured watching my eyes with growing intensity.

“Yeah, and you been good to me, but I don’t want nothin’…”

She pushed her fingers to my lips to quieten me.

“I know you don’t want nothin’ now. You’re all screwed up like me.” She twirled her fingers close to her ear. “Damaged people like us find it hard to trust, but maybe we could help each other─ get better─ and then maybe after that we could be together.”

What she was saying was kind of creepy, and erratic, and not at all like the Carol I knew back at the prison. She had said things to me before, playful things, but I was sure she never meant anything by it.

“Carol, I don’t think…” I was going to tell her, I wasn’t interested in her, that I didn’t want to be with her, that I saw her as a friend and nothing more, but she interrupted me.

“Shhh lets not talk about it now.” She said holding up her hands defensively. “ You’ve been through a lot today, and I’m real tired too.”

She was real tired? Maybe that’s why she was acting all weird. She placed a kiss to my forehead. “I’m going to bed. We can talk more in the morning.” She murmured against my skin.

She gave me a smile and then stood up and walked to the door. I jumped a little when I saw Beth in the doorway, wondering what she had seen.

“Oh hey, Beth. Daryl was just about to get some sleep, weren’t you Daryl?” Carol said stopping and turning back to me.

“Uhuh.” I uttered, lost for words.

“I won’t be long, just wanted to say goodnight.” Beth said glancing over to me and smiling.

“Okay, don’t tire him out, our boy needs his rest.” Instructed Carol, while she smiled back at me and gave a wink, before making her way out of the door and down the corridor.

When Carol was well out of sight, Beth dropped to her knees beside the couch and kissed me on the lips.

“What was that wink all about?” She asked me with a grin, absent of jealousy.

“Man, I don’t even know.” I replied, rubbing my hands through my hair, and pushing against my head trying to stop it from exploding with all the confused thoughts that were racing around it.

“I always thought maybe she had a little crush on you, and you on her.” Beth said, pursing her lips together thoughtfully.

“Nah, I like her, and I care about her a lot, but not like I care about you.” I assured her.

“Well that’s good then, I don’t really want to share you.” She said with a cheeky grin.

She slipped her hand under the blanket and began rubbing on my bare chest. I ignored the tingling sensation I felt when her skin brushed against mine and stared up at the plasterboard ceiling lost in thought. Should I tell Beth, what just happened? Would she be pissed at me? I didn’t like keeping secrets from her, and it wasn’t the best way to start a relationship.

“She kissed me.” I finally confessed.

“When, back at the prison?” Beth asked while continuing to wind her fingers through my chest hair.

“Nah, just then. Just before you came in.”

Beth’s hands stopped moving. “Did you kiss her back?” She asked.

“Hell no! I only got eyes for one girl.” I said turning to her and managing a weak smile.

“I don’t think she’s gonna take it well when we tell her.” Beth murmured thoughtfully.

“Maybe not.” I said, while reaching under the covers and taking Beth’s hand in mine. “But we gotta tell ‘em.” I pulled her fingers to my mouth and kissed the tips gently.

She smiled back at me, and then pushed her own lips to mine and gave me a long closed mouth kiss, and then rested her head against my chest, looking towards the fire dancing in the furnace.

“Are you completely naked under there?” She asked, lifting up the blankets and peering under the covers. She must have been taking note of my clothes, boots and poncho laying out to dry.

I pulled the blankets back quickly. I was still pretty cold, and my dick was looking less than impressive.

“Yep everythin’ was soaked, so it all had to come off.” I informed her.

She looked to my vest that was drying on the chair a bit further away from the furnace.

“Will your vest be okay?” She asked.

“Yeah, looks like it. Gotta find some oil to rub it down with once it’s dry.” I crooked my head a bit to look over at the poncho, still damp and letting off steam as it dried. “Pissed that your smell is washed out of my poncho though.” I added.

She looked down on me and gave me a sly grin. “Don’t worry we can put it back.” She said, as she slipped her hand back under the covers and ran it down my gut and straight on to my cock. I gave a little jump in shock, even though her hand was warm.

“What happened to it?” She asked lifting the blankets again and pulling them over her head so she could inspect it closer.

“Stop it.” I snapped, trying to bunch the blankets around it again. She kept her hand firmly wrapped around it anyway, but let me at least cover it back up. “What if your sister comes down here?” I asked her glancing at the open door.

“Everyone’s in bed.” She assured me, while trying to lift up the blankets again. I pulled them back down again and growled at her.

“Penises are funny.” She said while rolling her hand all over my shrivelled cock.

“Gee, thanks. I’m pretty fuckin’ cold ya know?”

She giggled. “No, I mean, Abraham, he’s taller than you, and chunkier than you, but his penis is a lot smaller than yours.”

I smirked to myself. “His ain’t small.” I said, winking at her.

She giggled again and began stroking her hand up and down the shaft of my cock in firm, long strokes. Pulling and stretching it.

“Yours ain’t so small anymore either.” She commented, giving my thickening cock a squeeze.

She gently drew her bottom lip in between her teeth and peered at me through lowered lids like she was some sort of porn star. I put my hand down on top of hers trying to stop her movement. She had to be kidding. Was once a day not enough for her? Fuck, if only I could be eighteen again.

“Gimme a break, girl I could’ve died today.” I reminded her.

She took her hand away from me and put both hands to her sweater and began loosening it.

“What’re you doin’ girl? Ain’t you listenin’?

She pulled it over her head and then tugged at her tee and pulled that off too so she was kneeling beside me in her bra and jeans.

“I know. I just want to keep you warm.” She said while standing up and shimmying her jeans down off her legs.

“Why’re you takin’ your clothes off then?” I said, tearing my eyes away from her panties and looking at her flushed face.

She lifted the blankets and made me shift over so she could slip in beside me. “I saw it on TV once. The best way to keep someone warm is with body warmth and skin to skin contact.” She told me.

Yeah I bet. The best way to keep someone warm, and the best way to make their frozen cock get hard again.

“Oh yeah? You saw it on TV huh?” I couldn’t stop the grin that was creeping on to my face, or the dirty thoughts that were running through my previously exhausted mind.

“Yeah. Or read it, or somethin’. Sounds like a good idea though, don’t you think?”

She was now laying beside me with one hand propped under her head, and the other back on my hardening cock, rubbing her hand over it from palm to fingertip.

I let out a groan in response and then swallowed. “No. It sounds like a fuckin’ terrible idea. I’m completely screwed Beth, I can’t do nothin’.”

I was exhausted, and we were in the middle of the fucking mess hall. With Maggie and all the others just upstairs.

“You don’t have to do nothin’.” She told me, gripping around me again and pulling firmer. My cock was rock hard now, and I had forgotten all about how cold I was.

“You’re gonna be the death of me, girl.” I groaned.

“Uh uh, you’re gonna be the last man standin'.” She murmured into my ear, pushing her tits against my shoulder.

I couldn’t talk after that, or think about being out in the open. Her hand was casting spells all over my dick, and her breath in my ear was hypnotising my mind. She was rubbing and tugging, and squeezing and pulling. Her mouth was all over my neck and my ear, and all I could do was focus on not crying out like a little kid wanting to open his Christmas presents.

I was kind of amazed. For someone who didn’t have a lot of experience, she certainly knew how to jerk a guy off. My body was numb and dead and weak from exhaustion, but my cock was on fire, throbbing against her firm grip.

Her arm was jerking up and down, making the covers dance and she was panting heavily into my ear, making every hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Then she let out a deep sigh blowing hot air all over my neck, and I was completely done for. I felt my cock spasm and then it was shooting out all over the blanket.

“What in the world…” Came a disbelieving cry from behind my head.

Beth and I both jumped in shock and Beth tumbled off the couch to the ground, rolling in the blankets and pulling them down with her. I made a grab for them trying to cover my dick and the mess it was still making, and ended up just exposing my bare ass up at Carol.

“Thought you were goin’ to bed.” I managed to choke out, while I pulled the blankets off Beth and left her on the floor in her panties and bra. All cold was now gone from my body, and I just felt the heat of extreme embarrassment.

“I was, but then I remembered you’re not supposed to leave a person alone if they have hypothermia.” She glanced over to Beth who was struggling with her clothes, hopping around frantically, and bright red in the face. “I can see you’re not alone, though.” Carol added.

“Beth was jus’ helpin’ me keep warm.” I tried to explain. It wasn’t a lie, she _was_ helping me keep warm, and she did a darn good job of it too.

Beth now had her jeans on, and her tee. She had her socks and sweater bundled up in her arms, as she made a hasty dash for the door.

“Umm… I have to go to bed. G’night Carol.” She nodded to Carol. “G’night …” She started speaking to me and then trailed off, taking in Carol’s less than friendly glare, and then ducked out the door.

Carol turned back to me, glaring with her blue eyes wide open and wild. I sat up on the couch and bunched the blankets around myself.

“What the hell was that?” She cried angrily, pointing her finger to the door where Beth had just left.

“Nothin’. She was jus’ keepin’ me warm like I said.” I insisted.

“Do you know how old that girl is?” She growled at me.

Her growling made my defensive instincts kick in. “Eighteen. An adult.” I snarled back.

“She’s a child, Daryl. A God damned child! And you’re a fully grown man.” She was pointing an accusing finger at me now.

I didn’t know what to do or say, so I just scowled.

“I really thought better of you, Daryl.” She said in a disapproving tone before turning and marching back out the door.

I threw my head back on to the sofa and let out a frustrated growl. That was embarrassing as heck. It was a thousand times more embarrassing than all the times Merle had _accidently_ walked in on me and random girls going at it. It also meant the secret was out, and I was going to have to deal with the backlash in the morning. I spent the rest of the night stressing about what everyone was going to say, and thinking about Beth’s soft, warm hand all over my dick.

I didn’t get much sleep that night.

* * *

 

Sometime after daybreak I felt myself drifting off to seep, but I was woken not long after by firm hands gripped onto my shoulder and shaking me roughly. I jumped, startled from the harshness of the shake and found Carol glaring down on me.

“Get dressed, we got a council meeting.” She declared angrily. She swung around and marched towards the door. “Next door to the armoury.” She called angrily before dissapearing out the doorway.

The eating area was filled with the survivors who had come from the freight container, who were all staring at me in my blanket covered state. Rick must have forgotten to tell them not to come back in here in the morning.

I held the blanket to me and slid off the couch and edged my way over to the clothes on the floor. I pulled up my jeans under the blanket and did my belt up.

A few people had the decency to look away, but there were a couple of them who kept staring.

“Do ya mind!” I growled at them angrily, and they all turned back to what they were doing.

I pulled on my shirts and my vest. Then I sat back on the couch and pulled on my socks and boots, lastly I slipped on my knife sheath with my Busse still firmly strapped in. I had no idea where my Airborne was, but hopefully I wouldn’t need it. The only danger I was likely to face today was Maggie.

I made my way outside and to the building next door to the one I was in and made my way upstairs to the room next door to the armoury. It was a larger office than the ones we were sleeping in and it had a large conference table in the middle and several chairs surrounding it, where the other council members were now seated.

It wasn’t the same people in there who had been on the council at the Prison. Of course there was no more Hershel, so that made a big difference. Now Maggie, Tyreese, Michonne, Bob and Rick took his place. Eugene and Abraham where also in there, but they stood back in the corner as if they weren’t part of the group.

“Take a seat.” Rick said to me while pulling out the chair nearest to him.

“New council ‘ey?” I asked while marching over to the seat, rolling it out and sitting in it with my feet kicked forward.

“Prison family.” Rick stated simply. “The people we can trust.”

“What about Beth?” I asked, running my eyes over everyone at the table and trying my best to avoid Carols glare.

“Beth’s just a child Daryl, she’s not responsible enough to make these kinds of decisions.” Carol declared, with eyes narrowing towards me. “And she’s not responsible enough to be sleeping with someone twice her age.”

Everyone looked at Carol like they had no idea what she was talking about, except Maggie who stared into the distance like she was just coming to realise something. I froze still, not knowing what to do or say next, and just hoping the comment would slip through the air unnoticed.

“You’re fuckin’ my sister?” Maggie said while giving me a wild eyed glare.

Everyone snapped their heads around and stared at me. I hadn’t felt this on my own since I lost Merle back in Atlanta. I went back into defensive mode again jumping up and pushed my chair away. It rolled a little and then toppled over on the floor.

“It’s none of y’all’s business anyway.” I growled angrily, feeling real shitty with everyone glaring at me like that.

“You’re fuckin’ my sister.” Maggie repeated half shrieking, while standing and pointing a finger at me.

“So what if I am?” I said giving my shoulders an exaggerated shrug. This was not how I wanted it to go down. Damn you Carol.

“Well she would still be in highschool, Daryl.” Carol said crossing her arms angrily over her chest.

“Now lets all calm down, it really is none of our business.” Rick said while putting his arms up between Maggie, Carol and I. “She’s a big girl now, she can make her own choices.”

“She’s just…she’s my… baby sister.” Maggie said in a surprisingly soft tone, and falling back to her seat. “I’m meant to protect her.”

I looked around to everyone else, wondering if they felt like Beth needed protecting from me too. They all just looked at me like fish caught on land.

“Yeah, well y’all would be dead if it weren’t for this _baby_ you’re so hell bent on protectin’.” I pointed out to them, while pacing the floor angrily, feeling like an outcast.

“She’s just a child.” Insisted Carol.

I stopped in my tracks, and pointed a finger into the centre of the table.

“You know what? Fuck the council.” I growled. “All of us should be ‘ere makin’ decisions. Imma go get Beth.”

I stormed to the door and swung it open, and turned back to Rick before walking out.

“Get Carl up in ‘ere too. There _are_ no children in this shit-hole world no more.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not very tumblr savy, but thought I might use my account to put up some extra stuff I've been doing. Some concept art and plans, missing moments and stuff. Maybe even some prompt fics if I have the time.  
> My account is deni269.tumblr.com or Deni Lee Ridder


	7. Swinging

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Never again. Never trust. We first. Always.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No the chapter title doesn't mean what you think it means ;) Although there is some love triangle stuff going on in there.  
> Once again, I love you Carol.

I was so embarrassed about what happened last night down in the mess hall with Daryl. I don’t even know what had come over me. I only intended to go down there and make sure he was okay and say goodnight. But then he had been lying back with his hair all messy and wild, and scratches on his face, and his muscular shoulders were peeping out from under the blankets and I just couldn’t help myself. Then Carol had caught us out right at the worst possible time. I had high tailed it out of there and left Daryl to deal with her, and I spent the rest of the night wondering what had gone down after I left.

I woke up fairly early that morning. My stomach was all cramped up, probably because of the anxiety from last night, or maybe that little bit of human meat I tasted was still twisting in my stomach. I went downstairs to the toilet, and thought about going in to see Daryl, but I was stopped outside the bathroom door by Rick handing me Judith and asking me to watch her while he took care of business. It gave me a happy feeling getting back into the routines we had at the prison. Me taking care of Judith, and Rick feeling like he could handle the responsibility of leadership again.

I had popped my head in to the mess hall to see how Daryl was going and saw he was sleeping soundly, so I decided to take Judith back up to my room. Judith played happily on the floor while I lay beside her on the mattress writing in my journal. It was torn and tattered and dirty from being dragged halfway through Georgia, but the pages were still white. I dared to write in my hopes and dreams about being able to stay safely at Terminus, but I ended up cutting it short when I realised the page was covered in little love hearts, ‘Daryl and Beth 4eva’ and ‘Beth Ann Dixon’. That page was ripped out screwed into a ball and stuffed under the mattress for lack of a bin. I was cringing thinking about how juvenile that was, and Daryl would feel even more like a creep if he ever found it.

I lay back on the mattress and let Judith climb over me, babbling and drooling and mouthing at my shoulder. That little girl always knew how to make me smile. I started singing her favourite lullaby to her, for old time’s sake.

When I'm lyin' in my bed at night  
I don't wanna grow up  
Nothin' ever seems to turn out right  
I don't wanna grow up  
How do you move in a world of fog  
That's always changing…

I was interrupted by a tapping on the window pane in the door.

“Can I come in.” Came a gruff voice I recognised as Daryl.

“Uhuh.” I called, pushing Judith of me and sitting up.

He opened the door slowly and stuck his head in, looking a little sheepish. He was probably still embarrassed about what happened last night. He stepped in the door and lingered next to the doorway leaning on the wall. He was looking down at his feet like he had done something wrong.

“What is it?” I asked. Hoping he wasn’t trying to end it all after what had happened.

“They all know.” He answered looking up at me and chewing on the side of his lip.

“They? …who...Who knows what?” I had a pretty good idea what he was talking about, but I needed him to confirm it.

“They all know ‘bout us. Carol told ‘em.”

I put my hands to face that was heating face in embarrassment. “Oh no! Did she tell them what happened?”

Daryl shook his head, but was still chewing on his lip. “Nah, didn’t have to. But they know we’re…ah…doin’ it.”

I pulled Judith into my arms and stood up and started pacing nervously, bouncing Judith on my hip.

“What are we gonna do? What am I gonna say to Maggie? Oh this is so Awkward.” I thought out loud.

“It’s gonna get more awkward.” He said standing up straight and pushing the door open. “You’re comin’ to your first council meetin’.”

* * *

 

When I walked in the room of familiar faces all staring up at me, I felt like I was going to be sat down like a school kid and lectured on my behaviour. But after Daryl escorted me in and pulled a chair out for me to sit, everyone looked away from me and back to Rick waiting for him to get on with it.

Abraham and Eugene were lingering in the corner of the office by the window. I only knew a little about the two. Eugene was some kind of scientist who had been studying the virus that caused all this mess, and Abraham was some kind of body guard.

Apparently Eugene was keeping in contact with folks up in DC, and they were working on a cure. Abraham wanted us all to escort Eugene up there so he could share his 'classified information' with them.

“I’m not gonna make anyone do anythin' they don’t want to. I know we only just got settled in here, and we’ve been out on the long road for some time. So I’m puttin’ it to a vote to decide what we do here.” Rick explained to us all, after Abraham had given his spiel.

“Do we go to DC with Eugene, and help save humanity and what not?” Rick looked around to everyone waiting for them to raise their hands.

Sasha, Bob, Maggie and Glenn shot their hands straight up, along with Carl who looked excited to be included in the discussion. They were followed more slowly by Rick and Michonne. Judith babbled and slapped her hands on the table.

I did like the idea of being settled in a new place, and Terminus was starting to grow on me now the man eaters were taken care of. But at the same time the opportunity to find a cure for this whole mess was too good to pass up. If we found a cure we wouldn’t need a place like Terminus anymore. We could go back to living our lives. We could even go back to the farm, even though it would be empty without daddy there.

I stuck my hand straight into the air, and turned my head behind me to see what Daryl was doing. Daryl was watching me carefully, and raised his arm slowly when I turned to look at him.

What’s the other choice?” Tyreese asked, swaying slightly from side to side in his chair.

“We stay here and try to make Terminus our home.” Rick said looking to him, while he lowered his hand.

Tyreese put his hand up, followed more slowly by Carol. Sasha let out a sigh and then raised her hand too with Bob following.

“You only get one vote.” Rick said to Sasha.

“Well I said I would go with them to DC, to help out, but I only want to go if we all are.” She explained, looking to Tyreese. “I don’t want to get split again.”

“Maybe the vote should be unanimous?” Suggested Bob.

“Oh come on folks, we’re already way behind schedule.” Abraham pleaded stepping forward towards the table and laying a heavy hand down on it.

“I’m easy.” Daryl said from behind me. “I’ll go wherever the rest of you go.”

“We’re talking about a cure here guys, a real cure! We won’t need a place like Terminus if they find a cure.” Maggie insisted, thinking just like a Greene.

“ _If_ they find a cure.” Pointed out Tyreese

“They have no chance without Eugene.” Abraham said glancing over his shoulder at the stern faced scientist.

Bickering broke out, with everyone arguing the points for and against going to DC and for and against staying at Terminus. Rick just glanced above my head at Daryl casually while the bickering continued. I expected Rick to be the one who stopped it, but it was Eugene who spoke up.

“We don’t need to argue about this right now.” He called out raising his hands for quiet. He pointed to his radio sticking out of the front pocket of his vest.

“I haven’t heard anythin’ from the folk over in DC for some time now, since before we were locked up. I don’t know what’s goin’ on there, or if the facility is even still up and running.”

Everyone started groaning in disbelief and he held up a hand for silence. “I don’t think that means hope is lost, but there’s no rush for us to get there. If you want we can stay here a bit, recover, give it some more thought, and then we can all head out together.” Eugene continued.

Abraham grumbled something under his breath and turned and stared out the window.

Rick looked around at all of us with his hands pressed together thoughtfully. “Sounds reasonable. We stay here for a bit, recover some, and we’ll vote on it again, in say a week’s time?”

There were a few groans and mumbles, and then everyone raised their hands to agree. Abraham cussed and then stormed out the door, and Eugene slunk out after him leaving the council alone.

“Next order of business.” Rick looked to all of us. “We have an issue with food. There are a few fresh vegetables, that might last us a few days, a good supply of milk and still a few cartons of cereal, but it won’t last us long. That deer Daryl shot down yesterday would have been a huge help, but no one else has seen anything else around these parts. We’re gonna have to do something about food.”

I didn’t bother correcting them that it was actually me who shot the deer, not Daryl.

“I can do a run tomorrow, check out the nearby towns.” Suggested Glenn.

“I’ll go too.” Daryl offered from behind me.

“Only If you’re strong enough.” Rick said to Daryl with concern on his face.

“I’m fine. Feel much better after last night.” Daryl said. I blushed and took note of Carol glaring at the pair of us.

“You should take David. He knows these parts.” I suggested, trying to take my mind of my embarrassment.

“I’ll talk to David and the three of you can go out tomorrow see what you can find and we’ll take it from there.” Rick said, looking around to the group, and grinning when no one protested.

“The last thing we need to bring up is our captives in the train car.” His grin left his face and turned into a scowl. “David, wants us to let them go, or at least feed them, but I ain’t willin’ to give up our little food. So do we let them go?”

“Hell no.” Daryl barked behind me. He had the most reason to hate them. They had very nearly eaten him.

“No.” Came a choir of voices.

Everyone looked to me waiting for an answer. “I don’t really know. I mean, I think they’re not all bad people. David seemed to think they were just trying to get by in their own way.” I could feel Daryl’s eyes burning a hole in the back of my neck. I pictured him hanging there naked, with the body of a woman hanging nearby him and a man cut to pieces on the table.

“No.” I ended up saying flatly.

“I think we should let them go.” Carol added in. Everyone looked to her.

“They were just trying to survive. We’ve all done terrible things, because it was necessary to survive.” She explained glancing over to Tyreese.

“We ain’t gonna have those freaks wanderin’ ‘round ‘ere. What happens when they get a bit peckish, hmm? We gonna invite them in for a snack?” Daryl snarled angrily from behind me. “Ain’t we got enough things ‘round ‘ere tryna eat us?” He added.

“I have to agree with Daryl on this one.” Rick said leaning forward and putting an authoritative finger to the table. “We just can’t have that type roamin’ around. We have to put ourselves first.”

It reminded me of something I had heard before and I let it slip out of my mouth as I thought it over.

“Never again. Never trust. We first. Always.”

* * *

 

I was relieved to get through that whole meeting without anyone mentioning anything about Daryl and I. When we all walked out the room and Daryl lingered behind waiting for me, I noticed Maggie watching me carefully, and I knew she had something to say to me. Glenn grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away before she could. Rick walked past and took the babbling Judith out of my arms.

“Give you guys some time to talk.” He said giving me a smile that made me blush. “You make sure he takes it easy today.” He said nodding his head towards a sheepish looking Daryl.

“What have we got to talk about?” I asked turning towards him.

“Sleepin’ arrangements.” He stated simply.

“Oh yeah? What about them.”

“My place or yours?” He asked with a sideways smile.

I turned my head to see if anyone was watching us. They had all turned down the stairway and out of sight, so I gave Daryl a quick peck on the lips.

“I’m already settled in to my room.” I said. I wasn’t really that settled, but my room was on the opposite side from Maggie and Glenn’s room and there was nobody in the room next door to us. We would have the most privacy there.

“I’ll get my stuff.” Daryl said patting down his pockets on his shirt and pants. “You know where I put my bow?” He asked playfully.

“In there?” I said thumbing over my shoulder to the armory.

Daryl collected the bow, saying he felt safer sleeping beside it. I decided to take my new crossbow over too. Not that I would ever feel unsafe with Daryl sleeping beside me.

* * *

 

When we got back to the room, Daryl was straight to closing the door and pushing me on to the bed. It creaked loudly when I fell on to it, and creaked and groaned again when Daryl got on top.

“I need to punish you for what you did to me last night.” He said leaning down and kissing me roughly.

“Stop it.” I said playfully pushing him away “It’s the middle of the day someone will hear us.”

“You didn’t seem to mind when we were in the middle of the mess hall and anyone could walk in.” He looked up thoughtfully, and rubbed his chin in an exaggerated manner. “Infact I think someone did.” He added

“That was so embaressin’.” I said trying to cover my face. He pulled my hands away and started kissing on my neck and moving his hands down towards my belt buckle.

“How do you think it was for me? I was the one with my dick hanging out, ‘least you had clothes on.”

I giggled thinking about Daryl trying to make a grab for the covers with his bare behind sticking up in the air.

“Oh that’s funny is it?” He said pulling my belt open roughly.

“Stop.” I insisted again, trying to pull his strong hands away from my jeans. “I can actually hear people outside.”

“C’mon what’s the matter Greene, can’t keep up with an old man?” He grabbed my hands and pulled them together and then held them at the wrists in one hand, while with the other he started tugging at my jeans. I tried to wriggle my wrists free from his grip but he was too strong. Then a feeling, something like fear, shot through my body.

“Stop.” I said more firmly.

He was kissing on my neck now, while forcing my jeans down my thighs. I started kicking my legs trying to get him off. He put his knees on top of my shins so I couldn’t move them either.

“I’m gonna make you moan so loud, girl. You’re not gonna be able to look no-one in the eye for a week.” He chuckled into my ear.

“No, stop.” I said, with my chest getting tight and my breaths getting quick and shallow. I was dead serious now, but he still thought it was all a game.

“I’m gonna make you scream.” He whispered into my ear.

And I lost all control at that point. All I could see was Len’s hairy face looking down on me while he was standing between my legs, pushing at me and trying to get in. And then I saw Anton’s twisted grin as he was on top of me, overpowering me the same way I was being overpowered now, with my wrists being held in one hand and having my shins pinned down by large and strong knees. Then both of the visions of Anton and Len merged in to one, and they both spoke to me in unison.

_“I’m gonna make you scream.”_ They whispered.

And I did. I squeezed my eyes shut and I screamed as loud as I could. I shrieked and cried and threw my head about and bucked my body up and down doing anything I could to get my attackers off me. I felt the weight lift off me and the bed creaked again and then I heard a familiar voice call.

“I was only playin’ girl. I ain’t gonna do nothin’.”

I was gasping and panting and trembling and trying to tell myself that it was okay, that I was safe. But I still felt terrified. I drew my legs in to my body and began rocking back and forth on the bed like a child, sobbing and repeating “stop.” to myself over and over again.

I heard the bed creak again and warm, strong arms wrap around my chest and drag me off the bed and pull me in to a familiar smelling body. I opened my eyes to see Daryl’s face, twisted in concern, looking down on me. He was cradling me in his arms rocking me back and forth and stroking my hair.

“I’m such a dumb fuck, Beth.” He declared passionately. “I didn’t even think…”

“Beth.” I heard someone call from outside. Then the door was flung open and Maggie was storming in, taking in the sight of Daryl holding me on the floor, and then lunging towards him.

Glenn dove in to the room after her, trying to grab at her raging fists that were pummelling down on Daryl’s shoulders. Daryl tried to fend her off with his forearm.

“What the fuck are you doing?” She was shrieking while she clawed at the skin on the arm he was holding up defensively.

I had to pull myself together to defend Daryl before Maggie killed him. “It’s okay.” I called out to Maggie. “I was just having…a nightmare.”

Maggie fell back to the floor toppling on to Glenn, and then studied my face, trying to get the truth out of it. Daryl reached up for the blanket on the bed and dragged it over my legs, trying to cover my exposed thighs.

“About Len, and Anton.” I added, trying to convince Maggie, that Daryl was doing no wrong.

She went to her knees and began brushing her wild hair away from her face. Her eyes were darting between Daryl and Myself, and she was panting noticeably.

“Sorry.” She finally said in between pants, while looking at Daryl.

“It’s okay. Feelin’ like I deserve it right ‘bout now.” He replied while still holding me firmly against his chest.

“I just, I heard you screamin’ and I…well… I don’t know what I thought.” Maggie was looking a little ashamed at her actions. I was angry at her for thinking Daryl would hurt me, but at the same time it was a comfort to know she would defend me so passionately.

“I was coming to talk to Beth.” She said, gulping in air trying to catch her breath.

Daryl nodded his head at her.

“Sure.” He replied, but kept me wrapped in his arms.

“Alone if possible.” She added.

Daryl loosened his grip and dipped his head to look at my face. “You okay?” He asked.

“Yeah I’m fine now, just had a bit of a freak out.” I tried to manage a weak grin, and then pulled myself off Daryl’s lap and sat on the floor leaning against the cot bed, and trying to pull my jeans up under the blanket.

“Come on, man.” Glenn said tapping Daryl on the shoulder and then holding a hand out to help him up. Daryl took hold of the hand and gave me one more glance before getting up and following Glenn out the door.

“Jeez Beth, you have no idea how bad that looked comin' in like that.” Maggie explained to me while shuffling in close to me where I sat leaning on the bed.

“Daryl would never hurt me.” I assured her.

“I know, but for a moment there...” She trailed off while looking around the room deep in thought. “So you two are like together or somethin’?” She asked, her line of conversation suddenly changing direction.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I guess.”

“And you’re havin' sex?”

I blushed, and wondered if it would be worse having this conversation with Maggie or with my dad. I gave a dip of my head, and hoped this discussion would be over quickly.

“Do you know what you’re getting yourself in to?” She continued.

I bobbed my head up and down in response, even though I was really just playing it as it came.

“Daryl is a really nice guy. We all love him dearly, but he’s got a past, he’s got a shit load of skeletons in that closet of his.” Maggie explained to me.

“I’ve met some of them.” I said with a weak smile.

She smiled back at me, and wrapped her arm around my shoulders.

“I don’t think I need to ask you if you care about him.”

“No, you don’t. I care about him a lot.” I told her.

“And it seems he cares about you.” She added.

“He’s told me as much.” I said, feeling my cheeks flush.

“Well I guess, there’s really nothing else to say then.” She said with a shrug of her shoulders.

I smiled at her, relieved that the conversation was soon to be over. She wasn’t angry at me, and she was going to accept my relationship with Daryl. It couldn’t have gone any better really, except maybe if she didn't try to kill Daryl.

“You’ve been safe right?” She asked suddenly, while narrowing her eyes at me.

I tried not to think on it for too long. We had been fairly safe, but I guess we could have been safer. I nodded my head anyway trying to get this part of the conversation over.

“So he’s been using condoms?”

I tried not to hesitate too long on that one either, and nodded my head even faster, hoping she wouldn’t see past the lie.

“That’s a relief. You may not be too young for Daryl. But you are far too young to be having his baby.”

* * *

 

I was still a little shaken after the incident with Daryl that morning. I felt like I should go seek out Daryl for comfort, but when I found him in the mess hall, flicking through an old magazine in front of the furnace, there was some odd sinking feeling that stopped me from going to him. I decided to seek comfort in the next best thing, and went looking for Judith.

I found her directly outside in the courtyard, playing in the sun on a blanket, chewing on the brim of Carl’s hat, with Carl lying next to her reading a comic. I lay down on my belly next to him and propped my head up on my hands.   
“What you readin?” I asked.

“ _Invincible_. Some super hero comic.” He said glancing up at me.

“What’s it about?” I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. “He’s a teen with super human strength, and he can fly, saves the world that kind of stuff...” He paused for a second and then looked back at me. “Do you think that Dr Eugene could find a cure?”

I shrugged my shoulders, and he looked away sullenly.

“We shouldn’t stay here. We should be going to Washington.” He said while rubbing his thumb over the pages of the comic.

“We will.” I assured him. I was certain we would end up there sooner or later, but I was going to enjoy our time here at Terminus as much as possible.

Carl frowned at me and then crawled to his knees, collected his hat and stood up.

“I’m gonna find my dad, can you watch Judith?” He asked looking down on me.

“Sure.” I said, giving him a friendly smile. Carl made a weak effort to return the smile and then went off in search of his dad.

I rolled on to my back and let Judith crawl over me, while I enjoyed the sun and tried to take my mind of the twisting cramps in my belly.

My sun was blocked out by an unexpected shadow. I took a hand to my face to block the glare and try to make out the features of the person standing over me and found Carol staring down.

I cringed thinking about the conversation we were about to have. Carol dropped down on the blanket beside me and started playing with Judith.

“She’s a cute baby.” She commented, sounding like she was meeting Judith for the first time. I nodded silently, anxious to do away with the small talk and get this discussion out of the way.

“You know that Anton talked a lot about a blonde girl when we were locked up.” She said, and then glanced up at me. “Didn’t know he was talking about you.” She added

That was a bit unexpected. I didn’t think she would be talking about Anton of all possible subjects. I shrugged my shoulders wondering exactly what he had said about me in there.

“You know the way he spoke about you, I think he really loved you.” Carol went on.

“He didn’t love me Carol! He tried to rape me.” I snapped back angrily.

Carol raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you sure? Maybe you gave him the wrong idea, maybe he thought you wanted it. I saw the way you were all over Daryl last night.”

I scoffed angrily at her conclusions. “No Carol, he chased me through the woods and pinned me to the ground. I’m pretty sure he knew I didn’t want it.” I growled.

Carol looked away from my glare and back to Judith. “Two sides.” She said with a shrug.

I was so shocked that she was taking Anton’s side over mine that I couldn’t even respond. So I just glared at her.

“It’s a pity you feel that way. He was a really nice guy. So warm and friendly. He sang to me in there you know? kept my spirits up. He would be a better match for you than Daryl, he’s much more like you, more your age.” She explained to me casually, like we were talking about some boy next door.

“Carol, you’re not listening to me! Anton tried to rape me, and he would have killed me! And besides that crucial point, he’s dead! We fed him to the Termites!” I was almost shrieking now.

“He’s not dead, I just talked to him.” Carol said calmly.

“You what?” I gasped.

“Now don’t get jealous. You’ve got Daryl, right? You can’t have both at the same time.” Carol said smiling back at me.

I stared at her in complete disbelief at what I was hearing. I could feel my eyes widening and my jaw hanging low. She studied my face and then pursed her lips together and narrowed her eyes.

“You’re acting weird today.” She commented.

_I was thinking the same about you._

When I failed to respond, she got up and brushed off her knees.

“I’ve got things to do, Beth. You take care of that little girl of yours.” She said before turning and walking away.

That whole conversation was crazy, but the way she said ‘that little girl of yours’, made me think that she didn’t even know who Judith was.

* * *

 

I spent most of the day looking after Judith while the others did what they needed to. They were moving rooms around, arranging rosters for watches, organising weapons, and food, doing their washing, preparing garden beds. Generally doing all the stuff we used to do back at the prison.

I had met a few more of the other survivors. There was Kara and Jason, a brother and sister who were a little older than me, who had lost their parents right at the beginning of the turn. They had come here with a married older couple, Doug and Heather, who had a seventeen year old daughter named Jane. I had come to the conclusion that Jason had a crush on Jane the way he followed her around the place with lost puppy eyes.

There were also three older men; Harry, Noel and Dean. They had been involved in some kind of military operation that went bad. Abraham spent most of his time with them trying to convince them to go to Washington with him and Eugene.

The other survivors were just a mix of people with different backgrounds, but they had all experienced some kind of loss on the way here. They all seemed like nice respectable people, and they were more than willing to help out with any job that Rick gave them.

David spent his time in the worship room talking to God. I still found the place creepy, so I chose not to go in there. Mix spent his time bounding around Terminus, making friends with everyone he came across. He even alerted the watch to a few approaching walkers, and they were able to take them out before they got close.

Daryl avoided me all day. He was most likely embarrassed about everyone knowing about us, and probably still felt bad about what happened in the morning. It might have bothered me that he wasn’t talking to me, but I found that I didn’t really want to talk to him either.

I didn’t eat much that night as my belly was still cramping up and making me feel awful. I decided I would head up to my room early and do some writing before I went to bed. Before heading up there I went past Rick’s room to say goodnight to Judith.

I could hear Judith crying as I approached, and when I came to the open door, I found a frazzled looking Rick bouncing her up and down nervously.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked stepping in to the room and holding out my arms for her.

Rick gratefully handed her over to me.

“I don’t know. She’s been real unsettled. Especially at night, Maybe she’s getting some new teeth in.”

I examined the dark hollows of Rick’s eyes, and figured he must be really tired and run down with trying to get Terminus in to order and keeping up with everyone’s demands.

“Do you want me to take her for the night?” I offered.

“Could you?” He said with a grateful sigh.

“No problem.” I said, reaching down for the bag of diapers.

* * *

 

Back in my room I found it didn’t take long for me to get her settled. Maybe Rick’s stress was making her unsettled. When she was sleeping soundly, I lay her down on the cot bed and went to the desk to write. Daryl came in about an hour later knocking on the door as he opened it.

“You don’t have to knock you know, it’s your room too.” I hissed, a little on edge that he might wake Judith up.

“Sorry.” He whispered, while peering down on Judith.

“No watch tonight?” I asked, while turning back to my journal.

“Nope, Rick says I need to rest. I am pretty tired, still recoverin’ from yesterday I think.”

Daryl closed the door quietly and then sat carefully on the edge of the cot bed and started taking off his boots.

“Didn’t seem that way this morning.” I said in a voice that was a little harsher than I intended it to be.

“I’m real sorry ‘bout that Beth. I don’t know what I was thinkin’. Truth is I weren't gonna do nothin’ anyway, I was just playin’ with ya.”

“Well you scared me.” I snapped again. I don’t know why I was so grumpy at him, I knew he didn’t mean anything by it.

He got up off the bed and came behind me and wrapped his arms around me. I shrugged him away.

“I’m tryna write.” I told him

_Geez Beth why are you being such a bitch._

“What’s wrong with you?” He said holding his hands up defensively.

“I don’t know, maybe I’m just tired. We should probably get some sleep.” I said with a sigh.

I packed up my journal and blew out some of the candles so the room was only lit with a dim glow. Daryl stripped down to his jeans and stood by the bed waiting for me to get in. I edged in carefully to the cot bed curling up behind Judith. Daryl was standing over me watching me with a frown on his face.

“Not enough room in there for me.” He said glumly.

“Well sleep on the floor.” I snapped.

“Sheesh, okay then.” He said, while dropping heavily on to the mattress and pulling the blanket over him. He turned to face me, with his head propped up on one hand.

“Why don’t you come and lay down ‘ere with me.” He suggested.

“I don’t have to have sex with you every night, Daryl.” I growled back at him. Judith stirred a little at the harshness of my tone.

Daryl screwed up his face at me like he was about to growl something back, and then sighed and reached out a hand to the bed.

“I’m sorry that weren’t what I was suggestin’, I didn’t think you would wanna after what happened this mornin’.”

“Well you’re right, so let’s just get some sleep.” I suggested, pressing my eye lids closed.

I could hear a crinkling sound like scrunched up paper, and my eyes flew open when I realised what it was.

Daryl had the note I had screwed up earlier, and put under the mattress, in his hand and he was reading it. I threw my arm forward and tried to snatch at it. Creaking the bed and jostling Judith around in the process. Judith gave a sigh and then went quiet again.

Daryl was chuckling to himself “Mrs Dixon, hey?” He said with a smirk on his face.

“Give it back, Daryl.” I sneered, while I ripped it out of his hands, and stuffed it under my pillow.

Daryl’s facial expression changed slowly from a grin to a frown. He must have been thinking about how juvenile I was writing notes like that and hiding them under my bed.

“G’night, Beth.” He said gruffly while rolling away from me and pulling the blanket over his shoulder.

I rolled over towards Judith and closed my eyes. I felt a tear slip out from under my eyelids and roll down my cheek as a dozen different emotions swirled through my body.

* * *

 

Judith woke me up with a sudden wail in the middle of the night. I got her up and checked her nappy, and tried to offer her a bottle of water, but she refused it. I ended up getting off the bed and pacing around the room with her while Daryl watched me through eyes squinted against the dim candle light.

“What’s wrong with lil ass kicker?” He finally asked.

“I don’t know, maybe her teeth. This must be what Rick was talking about, why he needed rest.” I said fretting over the wailing Judith.

“I need rest too. I gotta do a run tomorrow. Maybe you should just give ‘er back.” Daryl suggested while giving a tired groan.

“Give her back? What about when you have your own kids? Are you gonna give them back too? I guess it will be all my responsibility, huh?” I snarled at him, shocked once more at my sudden change in mood.

“Whatya mean, we don’t have no darn kids.” He snarled back at me. “Is that what that stupid note was, you wantin’ to get married and have mothafuckin’ babies with me?”

“Don’t swear around Judith.” I hissed while covering Judith’s ears with my hands “And hell no I don’t want no babies with you.”

“Well good, cause I don’t want no babies neither.” He hissed back at me, and then rolled over pulling the blanket over his head.

“Yeah well maybe you should stop fu…screwing me without a condom then!” I snapped at the mountain of blanket.

He tugged the blanket down over his face, and looked up at me.

“Is that what this is all about? Are you worried or somethin’?” He asked in a softened tone.

I fell to the bed heavily, with the crying Judith on my lap. “No. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m just tired, my belly is all upset, and everythin’ has been drivin’ me crazy today.” I tried to hold back the sobs that I could feel starting to build up.

Daryl stood up and reached out his arms for Judith. “Let me take Judith for a walk. You try and get some rest.” He suggested.

“Are you sure?” I asked, while willingly handing over the baby.

“Yeah. I need to clear my head anyway.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have the next chapter almost done, but its a looooong one. I'm trying to figure out if I want to cut some stuff out, or split it in two. The last part of it is really important, so I don't want to mess that up. Hopefully I'll have it all figured out soon.


	8. Baby Daddy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daryl seeks Hershel's approval the best way he can. Daryl and Glenn battle it out. Carol begs Daryl not to leave. Daryl does something that would make Merle proud, and Tyreese gives some insight into the mental state of Carol.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might all hate me after this one...or you might love me...

I had slept down in the mess hall on the couch by the furnace with Judith on my chest that night. She hadn't taken that long to settle. I paced around Terminus with a blanket wrapped around her and my bare shoulders, and talked to a few of the guys on watch. She ended up dozing off, resting on my shoulder. I didn't want to disturb Beth again, seeing as she was in such a bad mood, so I took her in to the mess hall.

When we were up I changed Judith's diaper, and gave her a bottle of water, and then made us both a bowl of cereal. Judith made a huge mess of it, and I had to raid her bag for a change of clothes. Glenn came in while I was buttoning her up and reminded me that we were going on a supply run that day.

I packed up Judith's bag and took her back upstairs to Beth. I almost knocked, but then I remembered how she had snapped at me last night, so I just opened the door slowly. Beth was sitting on the cot bed, writing in her journal, looking freshly washed and in a new sweater.

"I gotta go with Glenn, doin' a supply run." I told her, while holding Judith out for her.

Beth's fine pink lips curled in to a smile while she leant forward and took Judith into her arms, and bounced her down on her knee.

"I'm real sorry 'bout last night." She said looking up at me with sorrowful big blue eyes.

"s'okay." I said with a shrug, you couldn't get mad at a face like that.

"I'm feelin' much better now." She assured me. I nodded my head in acknowledgment, and tried to force my lips into a smile so she knew it was all good.

"You get much sleep?" She asked, studying my eyes.

"Enough." I replied while slipping Judith's diaper bag off my shoulder and dropping it down by the side of the bed. I took a step back and studied her small frame sitting on the edge of the bed with the baby perched on the end of her knees. I was amazed that someone so small and soft could make me completely fall apart in a mess of soppy emotions. And that went for the pair of them.

"Goin' on a run. You need anythin' while I'm out?" I asked her, while reaching down and pulling on my button up shirt and vest, and then slinging my Airborne over my shoulder.

"Nope." She replied with an innocent shake of her head, oblivious to the turmoil she had created within me.

"You need any…lady things." I asked, trying to think of a word to use that didn't make me sound like a dumbass.

She sniggered at me anyway. "You want to get me tampons?" She asked, with an eyebrow cocked, and a teasing smile on her lips.

"Yeah if you need 'em." I said with a shrug. It didn't really bother me none. I had never had to get them on runs before, because Maggie, Michonne or Carol had almost always come with me, and no-one ever asked me specifically to get them if they didn't. My mom had always sent me to the store on my bike when I was a kid to get her lady things ─and a pack of Virginia Slims─ when she was too hung over to get out of bed and get them herself. I knew what the basic necessities of women were. I kind of felt like this was a better way of asking if she had bled yet, rather than just coming right out and saying it.

Beth dropped the grin from her face and looked back to Judith, while she jostled her about playfully.

"I don't know." She said quietly. "I haven't needed them for a long time. Since before we left the prison."

I rested my back on to the frame of the doorway and crossed my arms protectively across my body. That was what I was afraid of. I couldn't help but think maybe she was being so moody 'cause her hormones were all messed up. I didn't know all that much about women, but I knew they turned into a big pile of tears and tantrums when they were pregnant. I was kicking myself that I hadn't been more careful when we had sex. Even though I had pulled out of her every time, it had always been a war of will to do so, and it had always been close. Damn close. I knew it was entirely possible that I may have got to it a little too late.

She was studying my face intently, her eyes flicking back and forth and her lips pursed together like a squashed up heart.

"Don't worry though; I hardly ever got my period since leaving the farm. I think its stress, and malnutrition, you know?" She said in an effort to reassure me.

I frowned to myself, her efforts failing, and I hoped that it would turn out that all this worrying was for nothing.

"You better grab me some…pads. I don't like the tampons much." She said hesitantly with her face beginning to flush pink.

"No problem." I said, pushing myself off the door frame and making my escape before she could sense the fear in my eyes.

"I'll get some condoms too." I added poking my head back in the door before I closed it.

* * *

We took the F 150 out that day. It had the most gas, and if we were able to find a cache of supplies we needed the room to bring it all back with. David drove seeing as he had collected the keys, and I took passenger. Glenn sat in the back, all suited up in his reclaimed riot gear, looking like a tin man in black Kevlar. The little white dog, Mix, jumped in beside him and gave him a long wet lick across his face.

David was going to take us to the nearest Megamart that was about an hour away. He said it was one of the biggest stores in the area, and it stocked just about everything, but he hadn't been able to get out to it since the first few months after the turn. Once we were in and out the gate, David rummaged through the glovebox and pulled out a CD and slid it into the stereo. The CD was filled with Christian rock songs about love and praise of Jesus. I turned to look out the window and studied the wasteland that Jesus had left for us. After driving for about fifteen minutes, the silence between David and I was getting more unbearable than the music so I decided now was as good a time as any to thank him for taking care of Beth.

"I haven't really had the chance to thank you yet." I said, turning down the music.

"For what?" David asked, while eyeing my fingers turning the dial, like I was touching the sacred holy grail.

"For gettin' Beth away from Anton, and keepin' her safe." I said with all sincerity while looking to his face, so he knew I meant it.

"That was entirely my pleasure, son. She's a lovely lady, lil' Miss." He said, turning to me with a wide grin on his face.

"Yeah she is." I mumbled to myself.

"She got a real soft spot for you too. All she ever went on about when she was with me was getting to her sister and her…male companion." David informed me while chuckling lightly to himself.

"Yeah I shouldna left her." I said, reliving the guilt I had felt when I first came in to the train box car and Beth wasn't there. My face fell into a frown and I stared back out the window.

David knocked me lightly on the shoulder. "It's okay, son. You treat it as a lesson, and you learn never to leave her again." He said cheerfully.

"I won't." I replied firmly.

David waited a few minutes for me to talk more, but I didn't really know how else to thank the man, so I just kept quiet and looked out the window. David decided to break the silence by turning the stereo back up again, and I tried not to groan.

We drove on for another few miles, with David humming and singing to himself, and me thinking about how much he reminded me of Hershel. He was younger than Hershel, and his hair was grey and not white, and he didn't have as many lines on his face. But he had the same wise looking eyes, and friendly smile. I wished that Hershel could have made it out of the prison, so he could be here with all of us. Beth never really spoke about him, but I knew she and Maggie missed him. Heck we all did. Hershel was really the closest thing I had ever had to a proper father figure, and I always wondered what kind of a man I would have become if I was raised by someone like him, and not by someone like my own old man.

Ever since that first time Beth had stood by that grave at the cemetery and thought about her dad, I had been tying myself in knots thinking about what Hershel would say about the relationship that had developed between me and his precious baby girl. It had grown in to so much more now than just a one night stand in a piece of shit cabin. I did really care for her, and it would have meant the world to me to have his approval, or at least his forgiveness.

I looked at David, at his wise and warm blue eyes, and his friendly lips moving along to the song about love, and wondered if he could give me some insight in to a father's thoughts.

"So Gareth, he was your son right?" I called out above the music.

David reached towards the stereo and turned the volume down, and then looked at my face.

"He _is_ my son." He corrected, not letting the friendliness drop from his lips. I was hoping that Gareth and the others had all wasted away into walkers by now, but I guess I could understand that David would want them to still be alive.

"And you have other kids too, right?" I added. I had heard him talking to Both Beth and Rick about his sons plural.

"I did, I had two other sons. They're gone now. May god rest their souls." He said glancing outside to the clouds like he was speaking to heaven.

"How old were they?" I asked, hoping I wasn't stepping out of line asking about his dead family.

"My youngest boy, Gavin, he was thirteen, and my middle son, Greg, he was eighteen." David replied without showing the least bit of discomfort.

I put my hand to my mouth and started chewing on the side of my nail, a nervous habit I had picked up when I didn't have a cigarette or something else to play with. And I was nervous about the next question.

"So if Greg wanted to be with someone who was twice his age, what would you say?" I half mumbled with my lips pressed against my finger.

David looked at me and let the grin slide up his face and touch his eyes, creasing the skin on his cheeks in the process. His eyes gave me a look of knowing, like he knew exactly what I was thinking.

"I think it's a little different when it comes to sons and daughters." He said with a chuckle. He looked back to the road, and continued on in a more serious tone. "But let's just say if I was Hershel." He glanced back to me, letting me know that he knew what I was asking. "I would be mighty happy that my daughter found a good man who cared for her, and I wouldn't be concerned about his age."

I nodded my head, and wondered if Hershel really would feel the same way he did.

"You care for the girl, right?" He added, dipping his head a little so he could look up in to my lowered eyes.

I put my hands together in my lap and studied the rough skin, cuts, grazes and callouses that covered them, while I thought about what I felt for Beth. She was the only thing that kept me going in those weeks after the prison fell. She was everything that was good in my life. She was like sunlight in the winter. She was hope in a world that had none. I actually felt like I would die without her.

"More than I thought I could." I finally replied.

"Then that's all that matters." David said with a grin.

* * *

The Megamart that we drove up to was surrounded by a huge parking lot that was littered with abandoned cars. It was also swarming with the dead. There were so many dead that all their snarls and moans, merged in to a deafening buzz like white noise from an un-tuned television set.

David pulled the truck up on the side of the road, and we all looked out towards the store calculating the risk involved. Glenn jumped down from the back and walked over to my door, and I wound down the window.

"Looks risky." I muttered.

"I reckon there's at least fifty of them out here, and there is probably more inside." Glenn said, scanning his eyes over the horde of walkers.

"The plus is that the dead keep the livin' away. There's prob'ly plenty of supplies in there." I said, calculating how many I could take down with my new bow.

"I don't think the four of us could handle them all." David said while leaning over and scanning the parking lot. I assumed he felt the fourth one of us was Mix. "We should come back tomorrow, with a bigger group." He added.

I looked to Glenn and we both nodded in agreement.

"We're gettin' mighty low on food though." I said, while rubbing my chin thinking about how sick I was of powdered milk and stale cereal.

"There's another place nearby. I've been there before, and it's almost picked clean, but you might find something to keep us going til tomorrow." David suggested.

Glenn and I nodded to each other again, and Glenn jumped back in with Mix. We started the car up and drove away, revving the engine loudly, and hoping most of them would follow the sound of the truck, and be gone by tomorrow.

* * *

The store David was talking about was much smaller, but it did have far fewer dead lurking about. David parked up right by the front, and I got out my Airborne and felt muscles, that I hadn't used in a while, stretch and contort while I drew the string.

I let the arrow fly in to the nearest walker that was dragging its feet so slowly I thought he must have been here since the beginning of the turn. The arrow landed in his chest, and I was glad we didn't stop at the Megamart, because I obviously needed more practice. I asked David and Glenn to leave the other two so I could take a shot at them. The second time I shot the walker the arrow flew an inch over his head.

"Fuck." I grumbled to myself. Glenn chuckled behind me, and I shot him an angry glare over my shoulder.

The third hit home right in between the eyes.

"'bout time." Glenn sniped behind me. I strode over to the walker and pulled out my two arrows, then turned around and wiped the muck from them over Glenn's riot vest.

"Naww man!" He groaned shrugging away from me and staring down at the congealed blood. I sniggered at him and turned back to my targets.

There were two more walkers stumbling around the parking lot who looked like they didn't even realise I was there. I nocked another arrow, drew the string and shot one directly in the eye. Then I nocked the last arrow, drew again and shot the other in the back of the skull. I did miss my Stryker, but the Airborne was so much easier to prep.

I collected the arrows from the corpses, and the one from the ground, and put them back in the quiver and then the four of us went into the store.

As we entered, the doorbell chimed and a walker that was hiding down one of the aisles, stumbled out moaning and reaching for us. I shot that one down with an arrow before it could step out of the aisle.

The store was mostly empty, like David had said. Glenn and David ran through the aisles collecting whatever had been left behind and I went straight for the stockroom. I tried the handle on the door, and it was locked, so I took a step back ready to lunge into it with my boot. Then Mix darted in front of the door and started growling at the small opening below it. I figured there must be dog food in there. I'm sure he was sick of eating stale cereal too.

I shooed Mix out of the way and then kicked my boot into the door near the handle and the door flung open with the handle flying off and clanging to the ground. I stepped in to the store room and a naked dead fucker leapt right out at me and went grabbing for my throat. It was barely more than a skeleton, with its gnarled bones protruding through its grey, sagging skin. Mix grabbed it by the loose skin on its ankle and started pulling it back. I took two steps back and shot it with an arrow, in the centre of its head. Then another female walker stumbled out after him, who was also naked. I wondered what their last moments had been like in there together, and then shot her through the eyeball. She fell on top of her dead partner, and I thought to myself that it wasn't such a bad way to die really.

The stock room was mostly empty, so someone must have got to it before the two lovers locked themselves in there. There was a crate of canned tomatoes though, which I thought would be pretty awful to eat on their own, but better than stale cereal. I pushed the crate out the door and then delved deeper into the stock room. I found a big pallet of toilet paper, and a cardboard carton with 'Always' written on it. I remembered it as being a brand my mom used, so I grabbed it along with a carton of Tampax and I tried to calculate in my head how long it would last all the women back at Terminus.

When I had pushed the supplies to the door, I went back in to look for condoms. I searched high and low, but there were none of them anywhere. Everyone must have decided that the end of the world was approaching and they best start fucking like rabbits. Either that or the dead lovers had used them all up.

I went back into the store and went over to the personal care section and kept my fingers crossed that there would be something left there. The shelves were stripped bare, except for some toothbrushes, and shower caps. I grabbed a few toothbrushes anyway and shoved them in my pockets. I turned to walk away and my foot kicked at something that had fallen below the shelf. I lay down on my front so that I could see what it was. In the shadow all I could make out was the white writing that read ' _Trojan'_.

"Yes." I hissed to myself and started reaching my hand, through the dust and cobwebs under the shelf. From beside me, I saw another hand reaching for them too, with fingers creeping across the linoleum like a spider.

I glanced up to see Glenn laying on his front reaching under the shelving just like I was.

"No chance." I said, reaching my hand in further and grabbing around the box and dragging it out. I gloated in the fact that my arms were longer than his.

We both stood up and glared at each other like we were in a western style showdown.

"You gonna share them?" Glenn asked motioning to the pack. I Glanced at it. It was only a twelve pack. That would only last me a week depending on how frisky Beth was feeling.

"No way, man, get your own." I said tucking the pack into the front pocket of my shirt and grinning at him.

Glenn reached under his riot vest and pulled out a familiar looking packet. I almost lost my shit when I saw the gold coloured packaging and realised what it was.

"Marlboro lights." I moaned. They weren't my first choice, but I felt like I could actually kill him for those cigarettes right now.

"Hand 'em over." I demanded reaching my hand out.

"You hand _them_ over." He said motioning to the box in my pocket.

I looked back and forth between the two boxes. This was a choice between sex with Beth and the cool menthol taste of a cigarette. I felt a shudder of bliss run through my body as I thought about having them both together.

"You don't even smoke." I groaned, hating the choice I was going to have to make.

"I know, but I might take it up… If I can't have sex." He smirked at me, and I felt like punching him in the jaw.

"I'll give you one." I offered.

He scoffed at me. "Are you kiddin'? Give me half."

I looked back at the pack. Six condoms, that wouldn't even last a week.

"I'll give you two." I bargained.

"Uh Uh, give me six or no deal."

I cussed under my breath as I ripped the box open and tore off six Trojans for him. I tossed them to the ground by his feet, and he threw me the pack of cigarettes and I ran off looking for a lighter.

* * *

Once we were back at Terminus I helped David and Glenn unpack the truck while I held the stick of heavenly menthol pleasure in my mouth. It was the third one I had that day, and it would have been a lot more if David had of let me smoke in the car.

"They'll give you lung cancer." He assured me.

"Not if a walker eats my lungs first." I retaliated, letting the smoke billow out from my lips and curl up into the air like a fountain of magical fairy dust.

We used one of the trolleys in the storerooms to move the supplies back to the mess hall. I rolled the trolley inside and began unloading it on to a nearby table. I dumped the carton of pads down in the centre of the room and watched as all the woman stopped what they were doing and glared at the label on the box.

I was suddenly overwhelmed with a rush of crazed woman tearing at the box desperately and jumping all over me, kissing me and calling me a life saver. I had never realised how much women loved their lady things.

After the box had been torn open, and the mad clawing of female hands had subsided, I took out a few packs for Beth and carried them up stairs.

She was laying on the bed reading a book, with Judith curled up beside her chewing on her necklaces.

I put the packets of pads down on the desk "I had to fight mad women for these." I said pointing to them.

"And I had to fight a mad Glenn for these." I said pulling out the half box of Trojans and placing it on the desk next to the pads.

* * *

I was on watch that day, taking over from two in the afternoon until midnight. I was brought a can of tuna and bottle of ketchup from today's run for my dinner. I ate it sitting on the rooftops watching the ground below, and smoking my cigarettes. I watched Abraham and one of his new buddy's playing cards down below for a few hours, noting how they were both cheating. Then as the night wore on I spotted Jason and Jane, sneaking into a darkened sideway and kissing in the moonlight, and I thought about Beth and how there was only an hour to go before I could curl up beside her and sleep.

My thoughts were disturbed by the sheet metal roofing creaking and I turned around to see Carol had climbed up and was walking towards me, with a big smile on her face like nothing had ever happened. I turned away and scowled to myself.

"What're you doin' here?" I growled when she sat down beside me.

"I'm here to relieve you." She said.

I took out the watch with the broken face, that Rick had given me and looked at the time.

"Still got another hour." I said.

Carol shrugged her shoulders. "I know, but I wanted to talk to you. We never got to finish what we were talking about the other night." She said with a smile completely free of guilt.

"I'm not in the mood Carol I'm still pretty pissed at you." I growled, angrily.

"Pissed at me? For what?" She said with a dumbfounded look on her face.

"For tellin' the whole council like that. Puttin' me on the spot." I reminded her.

"Telling them what?" She sounded like she had no idea what I was talking about.

I glared at her angrily. "That I'm with Beth." I snapped, pissed that she was playing dumb.

Her face fell in shock. "But you're not with Beth, you're with me." She said slowly.

"Stop fuckin' around Carol, I ain't with you and I'm never gonna be." I yelled into her face angrily. She was really creeping me out with the weird way she had been acting lately.

Carol looked around herself, like she had no idea what I was so angry about. "Wait, you can't leave me for her." She said in a pleading voice.

"I can't leave you if I was never with you." I snapped.

"But what about our baby?" She said with a sob.

I looked at her and carefully studied her face, she was weeping and staring at me with wide crazed eyes.

"What?" I murmured, not even sure if I had heard her right.

"Our baby, Sophia." She added.

I scrambled to my feet and took a step away from her, wondering who this crazy lady was, and what she had done with Carol. "Sophia ain't my baby Carol." I told her plainly.

"How could you say that?" She moaned, clamouring to her feet and trying to grab for my hand.

"Cause she ain't. I wasn't even around when she was born" I said, snatching my hand away from her.

"But you…but you tracked her through the woods. You spent days looking for her, and you gave me the rose. The Cherokee rose." Carol moaned, while pressing her hands together like she was praying.

"Not 'cause she was my baby, 'cause I was worried about her. Damn Carol what the fuck am I gonna do with you." I was pacing angrily back and forth, completely lost on how to handle the crazy situation I was in.

"You're going to leave me. They all leave me. Sophia left me four times. And now you're leaving. I'm gonna be all alone." Carol said, falling to her knees and starting to sob uncontrollably.

"Fuck Carol you need a doctor or somethin' I ain't qualified to deal with your bullshit." I growled at her, flicking an angry finger back and forth through the air.

She crawled towards me over the metal roofing and started clawing at my clothes, sobbing and begging me.

I felt like the biggest ass hole shrugging her off and leaving her sobbing into the roof like that, but I was completely lost. I had no idea what to do with her. I needed to go find someone else who could deal with her.

I climbed off the roof and went straight to Rick who was roaming around the front gate.

"You need to get someone up there with Carol." I told him pointing up to the roof.

We both looked up to the roof and saw Carol looking down on us waving happily, with a big smile on her face.

A shiver ran down my spine, like I had just seen a ghost.

"Why, what's up?" Rick said looking back to me.

I rubbed my eyes, trying to figure out if what just happened was even real. When I stopped rubbing my eyes Rick was looking at me waiting for an answer.

"Nothin'." I uttered and then glanced up at Carol, who was still smiling down on me eerily.

"I'm goin' to bed. Think I'm hearin' and seein' things." I said while turning and walking back to the living quarters.

* * *

When I came in to the dim candle lit room, it was filled with the warmth and sweet smell of Beth. It immediately made me forget the tension I felt when I had just been outside with Carol. I rested my Airborne on the side of the desk alongside Beth's Stryker and toed out of my boots. I put them beside the bows and then pulled off my shirts and vest. I thought about taking my jeans off, but I didn't want Beth to think I was pressuring her for sex again, so I just took of my belt instead.

The clanking of the belt must have woken her up, because she sat upright quickly, revealing that she was completely topless under the blanket. My dick quivered a little in my pants at the site of her small pink nipples, looking like cherries on vanilla ice-cream against her pale skin.

"I've been waiting for you." She said with enthusiasm, like she hadn't been sleeping at all.

"Judith, not 'ere tonight?" I asked, while sliding my belt out of the loops, and letting it drop to the floor.

"No. Michonne's got her tonight." She said while throwing back the covers to invite me in, and revealing that she wasn't wearing any panties either.

I groaned at the sight of the candlelight dancing over the smooth white skin of her inner thighs, and the soft golden hair between her legs.

"Take your pants off." She ordered. I ripped my eyes away from her thighs and obeyed, dropping my jeans to the floor, with a shuffling of denim.

"Those things, are nothin' but rags." She commented, pointing to my tattered jeans by my feet. "I'm gonna have to sew them up for you, or maybe you could just get new ones."

"Don't need no new ones." I said kicking them to the side and thinking how cute Beth would look sewing up my pants for me. Like a real sixties housewife. I jumping into the bed beside her, jostling her about and causing the springs to squeak loudly. She let out a cute giggle and then pushed me forcefully off the bed, so I fell on to the mattress on the floor with a grunt. She fell on top of me making me grunt again as her slight form pushed all the air out of my chest. My dick started bobbing up and down as I felt the length of her naked, warm, smooth body pressing against mine.

"You're feeling better, hey?" I asked her, while she was running her mouth all over my chest and neck, sending chills up my spine.

"Much better." She murmured against my skin in between kisses. "You smell like cigarette." She commented sniffing briefly at my hair.

"Found a pack today. Only lights, but they ain't too bad." I wondered if I should tell her that I had given up six chances of safe sex with her in order to get those cigarettes.

"I hate that you smoke, but the smell is kind of a turn on." She said, before running her mouth over my neck, jaw and ear. I started thinking about how much I wanted to hold one in my fingers right now and take a long slow drag, while she ran her mouth over me. Then she started pushing herself into my thigh, forcing her pubic bone up against me and letting me feel how wet she was, and all I could think of was getting inside her.

"Geez girl what's got in to you?" I said as I ran my rough hand over her silk to the touch skin on her back and ass.

"I don't know." She said releasing her teeth from my ear lobe, and moving them towards my mouth. "Don't you like it?"

"Not… that I'm … complainin'…mmm… but what is it…. with women and acting …nuts today?" I said, while she was attacking my mouth with tongue lips and teeth.

"What do you mean?" She murmured between kisses.

"Carols been actin' real weird lately." I said while Beth trailed kisses from my mouth, over my check, down over my jaw and to my neck and then bit lightly on my shoulder. She released her teeth from my flesh and looked up at me.

"I noticed that too." She said, while rubbing her fingers through the hair on my chest. "Think there's somethin' goin' on with her?"

"Yeah, but I have no idea what." I uttered, thinking over the insane conversation we had earlier.

"Maybe you should have a talk with Tyreese tomorrow. He was with her last, maybe he knows what's up with her." Beth suggested wisely.

I nodded in agreement, and wondered what had happened between them two while they were on the road together, and if he ever found out about how she killed Karen. Beth watched me with widening eyes while I thought it over, and then leant into me.

"How 'bout you don't think of Carol right now?" Beth murmured against my ear, while grabbing firmly on to my dick.

She started rubbing her hand up and down the shaft. Then she rubbed her thumb over my knob, and twisted her fingers up over it to meet her thumb, and all thoughts of Carol slipped away.

I put my hand to Beth's shoulder and rolled her on to her back and started returning the kisses to her chests and tits. She moaned when I took her nipple in my mouth and bit down gently on it, before swirling my tongue around it and drawing it to attention. While doing the same to the other tit, I ran my hand down over her hip and to her thigh and drew my hand between her legs, slipping all over the place while trying to get my fingers in to her. It was pretty clear to me she didn't need any foreplay, but I wanted to make her moan using my hand anyway.

"Fuck girl, you're so damn wet." I murmured into her neck, while I rubbed the moisture that was dripping out of her all over my fingers. She moaned in reply as I forced two fingers in to her, pushing through the tight muscles. I let out a groan as she clenched down on them, imagining how it would feel on my dick. I put my thumb to her clit, and brushed over it gently while I pushed my fingers in deeper. When her initial moan had drifted off into a whisper I pressed my thumb in firmer on her clit and moved my fingers in and out of her rubbing upwards towards my thumb.

She squirmed and trembled and squealed and moaned, and I covered her mouth with my own so I could swallow her cries, and save the neighbours from hearing it all.

She was clawing on to my back with one hand and using the other hand to pull down on my elbow and push my fingers in deeper. I kept working her until she arched her back and threw her head back and started convulsing and moaning like a grieving widow. I went to put my other hand to her mouth to try to quieten her, and then took it straight away when I realised it might make her feel like I was overpowering her again.

When she had finished writhing and moaning, she pulled my hand, that was knuckle deep in her, away, and then she pushed my shoulder down so I was on my back. She lifted my hands above my head, interlocking her fingers with mine and then straddled over me.

"I'm gonna fuck _you_ tonight." She rasped, while she slipped down over my gut and wriggled her hips around until my rock hard dick was at the burning hot opening to her pussy.

"You gotta filthy…uhh" I groaned as she slid down taking me inside her fully, letting me feel the clenching of her muscles as I forced my way through.

"If you're gonna be like this every night, I can handle you actin' crazy every now and then." I uttered when I had recovered from the intense sensation of her hot, wet and tight on my dick.

She bent her head down to kiss me on the mouth, and I pushed her back away from me when I realised we had forgotten something.

"Condom." I hissed, disappointed we had to use one.

She let out a groan, and then slid off me, stood up and walked over towards the desk, with her wet thighs glistening in the candle light. She pulled the box out of the drawer and ripped one off and threw it over to me.

I tore the pack open with my teeth, and pulled out the lubricated rubber disk and placed it on the head of my cock. I cussed under my breath wishing it had been a large pack that I had found, and then wrestled with my dick trying to roll it down and force my cock inside it.

It felt like someone was trying to strangle my dick with cling wrap, and I thought about how good it felt to feel Beth's warmth and wetness. The bonus was that it would probably help take away some of the sensitivity and that would mean I could last longer. It seemed like Beth would be wanting to pull an all-nighter tonight.

She climbed back on top of me and slid back on and began rolling her hips to the front and to the back, with her hands pressed down on my shoulders and her neck crooked down so she could kiss me. I was flicking my tongue up wildly trying to catch hers as she moved her head back and forth gently with the rocking of her hips. I was trying to find a place for my hands, grabbing on her thighs and her ass and her tits. I ended up putting my hands under her arms and pulling down on her shoulders as I thrusted up into her.

Beth was doing most of the work, rolling her hips around and bouncing up and down on me, but I would have to take over every time an orgasm would catch her and she would arch her back and throw her head in the air and moan. I would pound up in to her while she rode the wave, and then chuckle at her when she would finish and look down at me like I was chocolate pudding, licking her lips and pressing her teeth into them ever so gently. I was aware that we were being far too loud, for the paper thin walls, but no-one was banging on them yet, so they were either fast asleep, or enjoying the performance.

When I felt myself reaching the end, I went to pull her off me, and then remembered I was wearing the Trojan. I let myself explode inside her, letting out a long groan of relief. I was enjoying the fact that I could give her those last few thrusts while my dick throbbed inside of her and she could clenched down on it, and experience the last moments of pleasure we had lost before. I was panting heavily and squeezing my eyes shut, and when I opened them again Beth was looking down on me with her brows pressed together like she was about to cry.

"Is it over?" She said between huffs and puffs.

"Yep." I grunted, while trying to catch my breath.

She rolled off me and lay on the mattress next to me and continued to huff and puff, her tits rising and falling and glistening with a mixture of her sweat and my own.

I pulled the condom off and tied it in a knot then looked around for somewhere to dispose of it. There were no bins, so I ended up shoving it in the pocket of my jeans, and hoped I would remember to get rid of it in the morning.

When I went to lay back next to her she was pouting at me and looking at me with big disappointed doe eyes.

"What? No good?" I asked her.

She grinned at me and started rubbing her fingers through the sweat covered hairs on my chest.

"It was great, but I wasn't done yet." She growled before pushing me on my shoulders again so I went to my back and then she crawled on top of me again and started kissing my neck.

"Are you kiddin'? I lost count of how many times you came." I told her while rubbing along her bare back.

"I want more." She whispered into my ear, and then bit down on my ear lobe.

"I ain't eighteen no more. I needs my rest." I told her while I stretched my neck out allowing her better access.

I thought that there was no way in hell I could go again so soon, I would need at least a few hours rest, but as she ran her tongue over my throat and chest, my dick started dancing around again, responding to his call of duty.

_Well Daryl, you wanted an eighteen year old girl, now you gotta fuck like an eighteen year old._

So I did fuck her like an eighteen year old.

I grabbed her around the waist and flipped her on to her back. "Stay there." I ordered her, before grabbing the pack of condoms and tossing them to the side of the mattress. I went to my knees and tucked my arms under her thighs and dragged her hips in closer to me. Then laying on my front with my hard dick pressing into the floor I put my mouth straight to her swollen pussy and started twirling my tongue in between her lips, flicking back and forth from her clit to her sweet tasting opening. She cried out and moaned before reaching up and grabbing me by the back of my head and holding me firmly in place while she rocked her hips to and fro meeting with my tongue rolls. I moved my mouth upwards so I could take her clit between my lips and I pressed them down around it and suckled on it gently until she was screaming into her own hand and her thighs were shaking against my ears. I drew back from her trembling legs and opened another condom and rolled it over my granite hard cock that was already starting to throb again. Then I went to my knees, pushed her thighs apart and slipped straight in to her and started pounding away, holding her legs by the knees out to the side so I could get deep inside her. I fucked her missionary for a good twenty minutes until she was whimpering weakly and I had filled another bag. I snapped that one off, tied it up and stuffed it into my pocket with the other one.

I went to lay down beside her in a sweating panting mess and she was _still_ rubbing all over me and begging for more, so I slapped my dick around for a bit, with my eye on her swollen, wet, pink pussy. When it was hard again I slipped on another condom, rolled her over and pulled her ass up and gave it to her from behind, while she moaned in to the pillow.

I was fucking like a champion. Merle would have been so proud of me. I gave myself a mental high five as I pounded my hips against her ass, and rolled my eyes up to the skylight in the ceiling and thanked whatever powers there were for giving me the strength to fuck on. That third time I could barely even groan as I came. I was so weak I just collapsed on top of her, and nearly suffocated her in the pillow. She wriggled out from under me and laughed at me, while I panted and puffed and struggled to catch my breath.

I weakly drew my legs up and pulled off the condom, letting it flick off me with a wet snap. I managed to roll over and tie the bag up and then drag myself to my pants and put it in the pocket with the other two. Then I collapsed on the floor beside my pants completely exhausted.

Beth went to her hands and knees and crawled over to me, like a tiger hunting prey. She licked her lips like she was about to eat me. I almost started crying knowing what she was going to ask me. I looked down at my beaten and battered dick and knew there was no chance.

"I fucked you three times." I groaned. "I can't do it anymore Beth, I'm too old." I told her rubbing my eyes and trying not to cry like a baby.

She crawled over me and lay on top of me with her chin on my chest.

"Okay, I'm sorry, _old man_." She said with a grin.

I laughed at her. Partly because she was calling me an old man, and partly because I was relieved she was going to leave me alone.

She sat up and grabbed me by my hands and started pulling me.

"Come back to bed, you can't sleep on the floor." She told me.

I stumbled to my feet, bleary eyed, and then collapsed on the mattress face first. Beth slipped in beside me and pulled the covers over the pair of us. She tucked herself in to me and pulled my arm over her shoulder. I readjusted myself so I was spooning her, and then closed my eyes and sighed peacefully, ready to pass the fuck out.

"You did a real good job tonight, Mr Dixon." She whispered.

"Thanks, Miss Greene. You weren't too bad yourself." I said opening one eye and smiling into the back of her head.

I could feel myself drifting off into the bliss of much needed sleep. Then Beth started wriggling around and pushing her ass in to me.

_Fuck!_

I kept my eyes shut and tried to count sheep while she tossed and turned and grunted and sighed beside me. I knew there was no chance I was sleeping until she did, so I slipped my magic wands inside her and finger banged her until she passed out.

* * *

We must have slept late that morning because when I woke up, the room was real bright, and I could hear people going about their business outside. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, and Beth rolled over to face me while I yawned and stretched. My back was aching from last night's strenuous activities, and my dick was probably going to need a week long vacation.

"Get enough sleep?" I asked her with a suggestive raise of my eyebrows, hinting to her nymphomaniac behaviour last night.

"Yeah, but I think you broke me." She said reaching down under the covers and then lifting them up and looking down. She pulled the covers down and clutched them to her chest, with her eyes growing wide.

"Oh shit." She mumbled.

"What's wrong?" I asked, watching her blue eyes widen.

She jumped out of bed and pulled on her panties and jeans and then her sweater without a bra or shirt. Then she grabbed for one of the packets of pads that were sitting on the desk, and backed towards the door.

"I gotta go to the bathroom." She muttered, before ducking out the door, and closing it behind her.

I fell back down on the pillow, and sighed in relief, coming to realisation of what all her craziness had been about over the past couple of days, and hoping this would also mean my dick got the week long break it deserved.

"Thank fuck for that." I muttered to myself.

* * *

The Megamart was still crawling with walkers, although it looked like some of them had moved on. Glenn, David, Mix and I ended up taking Michonne, Tyreese, Abraham and his new pal Dean along for the ride. We had to take two cars to accommodate the bodies and the supplies we were hoping to bring in. We pulled up on the outskirts of the parking lot, and I took out my Airborne and nocked an arrow.

I could sense Glenn behind me watching and waiting to taunt me.

"Watch this." I said, drawing the string.

I let five arrows fly, nocking and releasing each one swiftly after each shot hit. Five walkers caught an arrow direct in the eye, before my quiver was empty.

I turned my head to Glenn grinning proudly, and he grinned back.

"Okay, let's go Robin Hood." Michonne teased from the side of me, and then lead the charge into the crowd of walkers with her Katana held high.

I had my Busse unsheathed, and took to it slamming it down into walker skulls, getting blood and brain all up my arm, and feeling good about getting back in to it after being at rest for so long. Tyreese was on one side of me smashing in skulls with his hammer, and Glenn was hacking his way around with a Machete. Abraham was taking up the rear swinging the butcher's meat cleaver down into the heads of walkers that were slipping by us. Dean was back there assisting Abraham slashing away at the walkers with a combat knife, and David was trailing behind us looking thankful that there was nothing left for him. When all the walkers were down, I went back around and collected my arrows and put them back in my quiver.

We all started yelling and banging on the windows of the store trying to get any dead inside to come forward. Another dozen or so walkers, threw themselves up against the glass, pushing their rotting lips up against it and smearing gunk all over it, while they moaned and scratched at the glass with their blunt nails.

Tyreese and I opened the doors and they all came stumbling out. We took them out with a flurry of slashes and bludgeons and then headed on in to the store. I had been right about no one wanting to take on the walkers and the shelves were stacked high as if the end of the world had never happened. Only difference was the store stank of rotting produce, and rotting corpses.

There were still a few straggling walkers roaming up and down the aisles so Tyreese and I wandered through them taking them out. I saw this as my opportunity to ask him about Carol.

"How long were you and Carol out there together for? Before you got to Terminus?" I asked, holding my Busse out and letting a dead guy walk straight into it skewering himself in the eye.

"Must have been at least a week, maybe longer." He replied before lifting his hammer and slamming it down into a walkers skull a few times until the skull exploded and a soup of black and brown gunk poured out.

"Anything happen to you guys while you were out there?"

Tyreese stopped in his tracks for a few seconds and looked at me like he wanted to say something. Then he turned his eyes back to his boots and continued pacing the aisle.

"The usual bad shit." He said with a shrug.

"You notice she's been actin' a bit weird lately?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yeah I noticed." He said glumly. A walker stumbled out from the aisle and Tyreese took him out with a wide hammer swing.

"It wasn't just me, Judith and Carol out there." He continued while flinging muck of his hammer and on to the linoleum floor.

"No? Who else you get out with?" I asked.

Tyreese lowered his eyes and started rubbing the hair on his chin.

"I had Mika and Lizzie with me too." He muttered.

I took out a walker that was snarling behind me and then turned back to him.

"They die?" I asked.

Tyreese glanced up. "Yep." He replied, before continuing on down the aisle.

"Did Carol have to put them down?" I asked. That might explain a little why she was acting so crazy.

"She had to do more than just that." Tyreese said shaking his head and looking glum. "She had to." He repeated.

"What did she do?"

"It don't matter. But I think it really screwed with her. Then when we came to Terminus and they threw us in that container, they took Judith off us. We had no idea what they were doing to her, we didn't know she was gonna be safe. I think that really pushed her over the edge you know, wonderin' what was happenin' to her. I mean, even after she saw she was okay, I don't think it really sunk in."

I felt really bad now about leaving her on the roof last night. She had lost four little girls that she had been a mother to, and now she was dealing with her grief in a really messed up way. If I had have been a better friend I would have taken care of her instead of pushing her away.

Tyreese and I stood looking at each other for a few moments, wordlessly worrying about Carol together.

"I'll talk to her when I get back." I finally said breaking the silence.

* * *

When we had cleared the aisles Tyreese and I went off on our own path. I went straight to the personal care section hoping to get some more condoms, and wondering if they would sell Viagra here so I might be able to keep up with Beth.

The shelves had been cleared some, but there were still a few boxes left over. I went to swipe my arm over the shelf and push them into a plastic bag before I heard Mix growling and snarling. Knowing what that snarl was, I followed the sound to see Tyreese about to open a door into a store room, with Mix sneering at it.

"Wait!" I called, jogging towards him.

He looked towards me as he turned the handle and pushed the door open.

Tangled dark hair and rotting teeth came slipping through the gap and landed straight on Tyreese's hand. Tyreese let out a shriek and then smashed the walkers head in with his hammer. He held his hand up and I could see distinct bite marks and blood seeping out of the wound. Tyreese was staring at his hand with a look of disbelieving terror on his face.

"Michonne! Get Tyreese's hand!" I called out to her. Michonne took a look at the hand Tyreese was holding up and came racing towards him with her Katana held up ready to cut it off. Then another rotting body came stumbling out of the storeroom behind Tyreese.

Michonne, Tyreese and I all wailed as the walkers gnashing jaws landed on Tyreese's shoulder and tore away at skin and flesh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, that title was just a teaser, referring to what Carol said to Daryl. Hope I didn't disappoint anyone with the lack of pregnancy. They are just not ready for that yet. I hope nothing was too full on either; the sex, violence or 'adult issues'. And I hope you can all forgive me for what I'm doing to poor Tyreese :(


	9. Left Behind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tyreese accepts his fate. We say goodbye to old friends, and old friends say goodbye to us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I have to apologise, the next two chapters are rather dull. Not much action and no sex. Half of the first chapter is about doing laundry... But consider it the calm before the storm, because the last two chapters are intense!  
> Song is 'Don't just stand by my grave and weep' written by Mary Elizabeth Frye.

After Daryl had left to get the cars ready for the run, I went to collect Judith off Michonne so she could join him. She wasn’t in her own room, but I could hear Judith’s babbles down the corridor so I followed them back to Rick’s room.

When I first walked in I felt like I had entered into some kind of romance movie. Rick and Michonne were both lying on the tiny cot bed together, shoulder to shoulder with both their knees bent into the air and touching. Michonne’s body was turned ever so slightly into Ricks, and I noticed Rick’s small toe brushing gently against Michonne’s bare feet. They looked just like college sweethearts lying in their dorm room, except that Rick had Judith sitting on his belly, leaning back against his legs. The both of them were talking to her and smiling and laughing. They looked irresistibly sweet together. A perfect little family.

They saw me lurking in the doorway with a goofy smile on my face and Michonne quickly rolled out of bed and stood to attention like I had caught them doing something wrong.

“I was just playing with Judith.” She spluttered out.

“I’ll leave you to it.” I said with a quirk of my eyebrow.

I walked back down the hallway with that same goofy grin on my face. It seemed love was in the air. Our family was together, we were safe, and Daryl and the others were soon to go and bring back plenty of supplies. It seemed like today just couldn’t get any better.

When I had managed to wipe the smirk of my face, I went back downstairs to get some breakfast in the mess hall. A couple of women were gossiping to each other by the door to the kitchen, when they saw me walk in, they smiled to each other and put their heads down. They were talking about me no doubt, and I could guess what they were saying. I blushed thinking about all the cussing and praises to God that were coming out of my mouth last night, and then decided I would eat my breakfast outside in the sunshine were less people could watch me, and speculate about what happened in my bedroom.

While Daryl was out, and Rick had Judith, I decided I would sort out the sheets I had made a mess of this morning. I went into the room and I ripped them off the mattress and bundled them up with some of my own clothes and Daryl’s long sleeve shirt that he had left behind. I decided I would wash both sets of sheets and pillowcases since I was doing a load anyway.

When I stripped the cot bed, it seemed like something was missing. I checked under the pillow, and then back under the mattress and then under the bed. That stupid note I had written before with all the love hearts on it had disappeared. I didn’t remember moving it from under my pillow, so maybe it had tumbled out when I was shifting around in bed. I spent a few minutes looking around the room for it. It was embarrassing enough for Daryl to see it. But if anyone else found it, they would definitely think I was too immature for Daryl. When I searched everywhere it could possibly be I figured Daryl must have already disposed of it, not wanting to be embarrassed by it either.

After I had wrapped everything up in the cleaner sheet, and left it by the laundry table, I went out to the well pump to fill the wash tub with water. The water from the well had been incredibly icy that morning. I had to boil up some of the water in the kitchen and add it to the wash tub so that my hands didn’t freeze, and also so the soap suds could actually work into the material.

Nobody seemed to pay much attention to me when I carried the laundry down to the wash station. I had the feeling maybe they were deliberately trying to avoid eye contact with me after what they may have heard last night. I blushed at the thought of it. Daryl’s hard muscular body pressed against mine, panting and sweating, and doing everything in its power to make me happy. The sex last night had been absolutely amazing. Daryl had surprised me, and I think himself, with the way he performed. I wondered if it would be too much to ask for _four_ times next time we had the opportunity.

The mousy-brown haired Jane had been at the laundry station scrubbing some of her own clothes when I got back there. She managed a weak smile for me and then went back to her task, scrubbing at her much newer and cuter clothing than mine.

I had washed Daryl’s shirt first and immediately regretted it when I saw the state it left the water in. It was brown when I put it into the water and came out a mustard colour when I had finished scrubbing it. That man really loved his own filth. I was glad he had bothered to wash up before coming to bed last night, even though I found dirty Daryl a little sexy. Just a little.

When I had finished scrubbing everything, I went to hang it out in the sunshine, hoping it would all be dry by tonight. Jane followed me over with her own basket of washing and started hanging it out beside mine.

“Hey.” She called to me glancing over. She was the first person other than Michonne to speak to me all morning.

“Hey, Jane.” I replied cheerfully.

She watched me for a few moments while I pegged my clothes up and then edged her way over to me.

“Sooo.” She sang enquiringly

“Sooo?” I echoed.

“Umm.” She mumbled with a roll of her eyes, before shifting closer to me. “I came to bed late last night and I heard somethin’.”

My face flushed with heat as I realised what she was telling me.

“Oh God, did you hear us?” I asked pushing my hot throbbing face into the cool damp fabric of the sheet.

“Yeah.” She grinned at my embarrassment. “You were havin’ sex right?”

I was a little taken back by her abruptness, but I figured this was kind of what girls our age talked about. Boys and stuff.

“What were _you_ doin’ comin’ in that late?” I asked trying to play her little game of what naughty thing did you do last night.

Jane looked away from me and blushed a little herself. “I was with Jason.” She whispered.

“What were you doin?” I enquired with a smirk.

“Nothin’ like what you were doin’.”

I raised my eyebrows and nodded my head like I didn’t believe her, but I did. She seemed like the demure type.

“Do you think Jason is cute?” She asked ducking her head around her pink tee.

“Yeah, he’s real cute.” I said, thinking about the blue eyed blonde haired boy. He was definitely attractive, but he was sweet and soft and fine boned. Not really the kind of guy I was interested in.

“But much younger than who you would go for right?” Jane continued.

“I guess.” I said with a shrug. Even though every guy I had ever crushed on had been close to my own age, except for Daryl.

“Daryl is really cute too.” She said with an eyebrow raise.

I smiled to myself. “Don’t I know it.”

“I mean he has the most gorgeous blue eyes, and he’s so rough and intense, and his shoulders are so broad and strong and his biceps oh my god...” Jane started rambling whimsically, like a…well like a teenage girl.

“Jane, that’s _my_ man you’re talking about.” I interrupted with a grin on my face.

“Yeah sorry.” She said with a casual shrug and we both giggled together like we were back in school.

“Do you have to have sex with a boy…you know, to make him like you?” Jane asked in a more serious tone.

“No you most certainly do not.” I replied quickly. “Why? Did Jason try to do something you didn’t like?”

Jane shook her head gently. “No, he’s real sweet, but I don’t _want_ him to do anything. I don’t think I want to have sex...for a while anyway.”

“Well it’s your body Jane, so you can choose to do with it what you like, and don’t let anyone pressure you in to doing something you don’t.” I advised her in the most mature sounding tone I could manage, while hoping that a girl like Jane could have a choice in a world like this.

“But he will still like me if I don’t, right?”

“He’s a fool if he doesn’t.”

We shared a smile as I pegged up my last piece of washing and then collected the washing basket ready to take it back to the laundry area.

“It sounds like it hurts anyway.” Jane mumbled to me as I walked past.

I stopped in my tracks and spoke to her over my shoulder “Oh no Jane, it didn’t hurt.” I said with a wink.

Her eyebrows raised and her jaw dropped while she studied my face. Then her lips turned into a smile and we both giggled together.

I swung the basket on to my hip and then started walking off with a wide grin still pasted on my face.

“You shouldn’t bring him in ‘ere. He’s been bit.” I heard an angry voice say from between two of the red brick buildings.

I stepped to the side so I could see who was talking. I saw Abraham and Dean storming down the path glaring angrily at their feet and behind them I saw Daryl being dragged under Tyreese’s hulking frame. He was sweating and panting, and covered in blood.

The basket slipped from my fingers as my blood ran cold and every part of my body went numb.

* * *

 

As I raced towards them I saw that it was actually Daryl who was supporting Tyreese, with Glenn on the other side of him. Tyreese’s shoulder was covered by what looked like a tattered shirt, and it was soaked red in blood. I felt a wave of relief wash over me as I realised Daryl was okay, and a wave of guilt when I realised Tyreese was not.

“We weren’t gonna leave ‘im out there to die alone.” Daryl snarled angrily at Dean. “We look after our own.”

“Well don’t come crying to me when he turns and tears shreds off everyone here.” Dean sniped back, before storming off.

“You best keep him away from the others. Take him to the infirmary or somethin’.” Abraham suggested. “I got to go see Rosita, she’ll be worried about me when she hears.” Abraham nodded towards Tyreese in way of sympathy and then took off.

I let my wobbly legs carry me over to Daryl, Glenn and Tyreese, not sure what I should do or say to him. Darryl gave me a concerned frown as he walked past me and headed to the brick building next door to the living quarters.

They took him upstairs to the infirmary and lay him back on one of the three beds. Glenn shook Tyreese’s hand firmly and held his gaze for a few moments. Before taking a few steps back from him.

“I got to go get Sasha.” He said quietly before walking out the door, glancing at Tyreese once more before disappearing.

I dragged one of the cot beds closer to Tyreese and sat down on it and held Tyreese’s hand. Daryl lingered by the doorway with his fingers tracing over his sheathed knife. I hoped he wouldn’t have to use it while I was there.

“How you feelin’?” I asked, taking in his sweaty and grey looking appearance.

“Feverish.” He replied wiping the sweat from his brow. “But not too bad.”

“How long do you think he’s got?” I asked turning my head towards Daryl.

Daryl shrugged his shoulders. “Hard to say, was bit twice, so might be quicker than usual. Who knows?”

“Is there anythin’ I can do for you?” I asked squeezing Tyreese’s hot clammy hand firmly.

“Yeah, if you wouldn’t mind, you could sing me a song.” He asked in an unusually cheerful voice.

“Sure, what do you want me to sing?”

“Do you know _‘Dock of the Bay’_ by Ottis Redding?”

It sounded familiar, but I wasn’t too sure I knew it.

“Why don’t you sing a bit, and I’ll see if it rings a bell.” I suggested.

Tyreese grinned widely and then started shifting his shoulders to a beat I couldn’t hear, while he rested against the pillow.

Sittin' in the morning sun  
I'll be sittin' when the evening comes  
Watching the ships roll in  
Then I watch them roll away again, yeah  


I picked up on the words and the rhythm and joined in with him, and shared his smile.

  
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay  
Watchin' the tide roll away  
I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay  
Wastin' time  


 

I left my home in Georgia  
Headed for the Frisco Bay  
‘Cause I've had nothing to live for  
And look like nothing's gonna come my way

 

I frowned to myself while I sang the two last lines and wondered if that was how Tyreese felt, and if that was why he chose this song. Tyreese kept smiling and singing cheerfully with a big grin on his face, clicking his fingers and rubbing his shoulders into the pillow. I stopped singing and tried to force a smile on my face, but I think it just came out as grimace.

  
So, I'm just gon' sit on the dock of the bay  
Watchin' the tide roll away  
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay  
Wastin' time  


He stopped singing and smiled at me warmly. “I love that song.” He told me looking up to the skylight with joy in his eyes.

“Sasha is gonna miss you.” I said sadly, thinking it was right to remind him that he _did_ have something to live for, but also wrong as he wouldn’t live either way.

“I know she will, but she has Bob to keep her company now, I can’t be babying her forever.” He chuckled lightly to himself. “I really can’t.”

“Do you miss Karen?” I asked, thinking maybe reminding him of the people he would join would be better than reminded him of the people he was leaving behind.

“Every day.” He said with a nod of his head.

His eyes looked past my shoulder to Daryl who was leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed over his body and looking morose.

“I know it was Carol who killed Karen.” He said softly.

I glanced back and forth between Daryl and Tyreese astonished. That was the first I had heard of it.

“And she killed Lizzie too.” Tyreese added. Daryl had been nodding his head up and down slowly but stopped and glared at Tyreese when he spoke of Lizzie.

“She was never bit, was she?”

Tyreese shook his head.

“Nope. Lizzie wasn’t right. She thought that when we die, we would come back as walkers and live forever, and that would be a _good_ thing. She killed little Mika, to give her eternal life, and she would have killed Judith too. She would have been dangerous.”

Daryl shifted uncomfortably on the door, and studied his feet. I just stared at them both with my mouth wide open absorbing the tale Tyreese was telling.

“Carol does the tough jobs.” Daryl grunted.

Tyreese nodded. “She does. And she’ll do anything to protect the ones she loves. Anything. I don’t know if that’s the best character trait for someone to have who isn’t stable in the mind.” Tyreese said tapping himself on his temple.

Daryl pulled his lower lip under his teeth and chewed on the side of it thoughtfully.

“I’ll take care of her.” He said with a nod of his head.

It was at that time that Sasha came bursting through the door almost knocking Daryl over and leapt straight in to the small bed and straight into Tyreese’s open arms. Bob entered slowly behind her with his face set in stone and his neck muscles bulging in tension.

I got up and went to Daryl pulling him out the door so we could leave them alone. As we left Daryl pointed to the knife at Bob’s hip.

“You’ll use that when the time comes.” Daryl told him.

“I will.” Bob replied with a nod of his head then he turned and shut the door after us.

We started walking out past the conference room and the armoury and towards the staircase. Before we could make it there, I grabbed Daryl by his arm and pushed him up against the wall and kissed him forcefully on the lips. Then I wrapped my arms around him and pushed my head into his chest.

“I thought you had been bitten.” I mumbled trying to hold back a sob.

He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and kissed me on my forehead.

“I ain’t gonna let that happen. I’ve got too much to live for.” He murmured with his lips brushing gently against me

* * *

 

Everyone was in a miserable mood that night. I didn’t even bother with dinner. I went up to my room and wrote for a bit and then changed in to some track pants and tried to get some sleep. My sheets were still damp by nightfall so I slept straight on the bare mattress. I tossed and turned for a while trying to get to sleep, I kept thinking of Tyreese lying in that cot bed, and the horrid thing Sasha was going to have to do.

Daryl came to bed after midnight with icy cold skin and hair smelling of tobacco. When he had undressed and crawled in under the covers behind me I asked him about Carol.

“Did you talk to her?”

“I went to her room, but she didn’t want to talk. She was real upset ‘bout Tyreese. They got close while they were out together. I’ll talk to her tomorrow when he’s…gone.”

“Are you okay?” I whispered squeezing his hand.

“I will be.” He murmured, tightening his grip around my middle.

We didn’t say another word to each other, he just held me all night.

* * *

 

When I woke up I was alone on the mattress. I got up and left the room not bothering to change out of my sweatpants. I made a quick visit to the bathroom and then went looking for Daryl. I found him just outside the gates with Rick and Bob. They were standing by a mountain of dirt and I knew they had got up early to dig a grave for Tyreese.

I came up behind Daryl and wrapped my arms around him.

“Is he gone?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Daryl mumbled. “David’s puttin’ together a few words to say, everyone’s gonna meet here after breakfast.”

I gave Daryl a squeeze of comfort, and then left him there while I went to find Judith and get some comfort of my own.

All of the survivors at Terminus came to say goodbye to Tyreese, except for Dean and Noel who were on watch, and Carol who wouldn’t even answer the door. Even Mix lay by the side of the grave with his head tucked between his front paws like he was in mourning.

We all stood by as David came into the circle of living bodies, surrounding Tyreese’s still body in the shallow grave, wrapped in a blood stained white sheet. David was carrying several planks of wood in his arms. He forced one of the planks into the ground and I realised it was a makeshift cross, nailed together crudely and with _‘Tyreese’_ scrawled over it in black marker pen. He stepped to the side and pushed another cross into the ground. That one had ‘Hershel’ scrawled over it.

I felt Maggies hand brush mine and I took it in my hand and squeezed it. I reached my other hand towards Daryl’s that was folded in his arms across his chest and pulled it down beside him interlocking his fingers with my own. I smiled up at him, but Daryl kept staring ahead at the crosses.

“Friends and Family, we gather here today to say goodbye to a man who holds a special place in our hearts, Tyreese. As we stand here we do not merely say goodbye to the beloved brother and friend, that he was, but also to the many that we have lost along the way. Brothers, sisters, Sons, Daughters, mothers and fathers. Some of them we did not get the chance to say goodbye to previously. We take this time now to keep them in your thoughts and in our hearts, as we send our words to heaven and tell them that one day, when the time is right, we will see you again.”

I could feel a tear slip from my eye and I went to pull my hand up to wipe it away, but Daryl reached over and wiped it away for me with his dirt covered, calloused thumb.

When David had finished with his Eulogy, Sasha started telling us a stories of when her and Tyreese were young. I seemed she would always get him in trouble for the things that she had done. She told us about the first time Tyreese broke his arm. She had been stuck up a tree and too scared of falling to get back down, Tyreese climbed up after her and a branch snapped and he fell down. She had got down all by herself after that. She told us a few other stories of the shenanigans they got up to from when they were kids right up until the thanksgiving before the turn. She was smiling while telling her stories but tears were still running down her face.

When she was finished David looked to me and Maggie and asked if we wanted to say anything about our father.

“Just that I love him.” Maggie said with a sob, and Glenn pulled her in to his embrace.

David’s eyes turned to me, and I decided I would sing a song for the both of them.

Do not stand at my grave and weep  
I am not there I do not sleep  
When you waken in the morning's hush  
I am the swift uplifting rush  
  
I am a thousand winds that blow  
I am the diamond glints on snow  
I am the sunlight on ripened grain  
I am the gentle autumn rain  
  
Gentle birds in circling flight  
I am the soft star that shines at night  
Oh do not stand at my grave and cry  
I am not there, I did not die...  
  
I am a thousand winds that blow  
I am the diamond glints on snow  
I am the sunlight on ripened grain  
I am the gentle autumn rain  


When I was finished. Maggie leant over and kissed me on the cheek, and Daryl smiled at me and squeezed my hand.

“We give these men unto you our lord. Amen” David finished.

“Amen.” We all echoed. Even Daryl.

* * *

 

We went back to the mess hall after and had a drink of hot milk. It was the closest thing to coffee we had on offer. Daryl grumbled about needing alcohol, and suggested we get in the car and drive back to the moonshine still, but Rick talked him out of it. I didn’t think I wanted to see a drunk and depressed Daryl again either.

As the day wore on we got merry again anyway. Daryl and Glenn tried playing a game of table tennis with a screwed up piece of paper seeing as there were no balls, and we chuckled at them as they dove and lunged all over the place. Glenn clearly won the game, but Daryl declared he was the winner boastfully, while flexing his biceps.

After Daryl, Glenn had a game with Carl, and then Carl had a game with Jane. I couldn’t help but notice Carl’s goofy grin when he looked at Janes flushed face as she bobbed and lunged and weaved. I hoped he wasn’t going to have his heart broken by another taken woman.

The laughing and jesting was interrupted by a frantic David who came racing in. By the look of his face we thought there was a herd of walkers approaching, but what he told us was far worse.

“What is it?” Rick asked him studying his worried face.

David hesitated for a second. “It’s Gareth and the others.” He finally said.

“What about them?” Rick asked with concern creasing his brow.

“They’re gone.”

“Whattaya mean they’re gone?” Daryl called out angrily from behind me.

“There’s no one there, the car is empty.” David clarified.

“How do you even know that? What were _you_ doing there?” Rick asked him accusingly.

“It wasn’t me.” David declared.

“You’ve been askin’ to release ‘em.” Rick growled while stepping towards David angrily.

“I know I did, but I respect your judgement, I wouldn’t release them without your blessing.” David looked down to his clasped hands. “but….”

“but what?” Rick spat furiously.

“Well I couldn’t stand that they were in there starving, just like before. I couldn’t have them eating one another.”

“You were feeding them?” Rick half shouted in disbelief. “We barely have enough food for ourselves!”

“I had to.” David said flinching away from Rick’s angry yells. “It was inhumane what you were doing to them, locking them away like animals and letting them starve, and I used my own supplies anyway.”

“They are animals.” Daryl piped in snarling over my shoulder.

“They were just trying to survive in a harsh world.” David pleaded.

“Yeah and we were gettin’ pay back for lockin’ us away and tryna eat us.” Daryl growled , pointing his finger angrily at David.

David’s pleading face changed to a more stern and serious one “And what is the more dire need? Revenge or survival?”

Daryl cussed under his breath and then started pacing the floor angrily, glaring at David like he was going to tear him to shreds. Rick held his hands up in between Daryl and David, as fearful as I was that Daryl was ready to pounce.

“Okay, if you didn’t let them out, then who did?” He said scanning around at the group in the hall who were watching the display.

“Well, a few times I went down there, and that lady, Carol. She was talking to them through the door.”

“Carol…” I repeated glancing at Daryl.

“She had built up some kind of friendship with that guy you put in there. The African American fellow.” David said.

“Anton? So he is still alive.” I wailed.

“Last I checked he was. Like I said, I fed them so they wouldn’t have to do that again.”

“Are you tryna say that Carol, let them all go?” Rick said with his eyebrows almost reaching his hairline.

“Carol ain’t like that. She’s not stupid.” Maggie said shaking her head.

Daryl and I both looked at each other knowing that Carol was nothing like how she used to be.

“I’m gonna go check her room.” Daryl blurted out while darting out of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: A bit of Richonne thrown in there for you ;) Double update to make up for the dullness.


	10. Carolina

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daryl searches for Carol and accepts her fate.

I raced up the stairs taking them two at a time and turned into the northern corridor. I went into the first door on the left that was Carol’s room expecting it to be empty, and it was. Not only was Carol not in it, but there wasn’t a single personal item left in there.

Rick came jogging through the door after me, stopping himself mid step with his hands on either side of the frame, and started scanning the room.

“She planned it.” I muttered to him.

I paced back and forth through the empty room, while my chest heaved and my body tensed with frustration and rage. I needed to release the anger somehow so I grabbed on to chair that was pushed under the desk and threw it against the plasterboard sheeting. The chair tore through the board, stopping when the base of the seat caught on the timber frame. I clenched my fists and made an effort to control my heavy breathing as I watched the small black wheels roll to a stop.

* * *

 

I knew that she had gone willingly with the Termites, but I also knew she wasn’t right in the head, so I went back down to the mess hall and grabbed my Airborne, checked my Busse was sharp and then went out to track her down.

My first stop was the box car we had left the Termites in. I opened the door as far as possible so I could see what traces had been left behind in the darkness. The shitting bins were half filled and the car reeked something awful. There were also empty cans spread all over the place. As much as I had warmed to David, I cursed him for keeping them alive. A small metallic object glinting in one of the corners of the car caught my attention. It was the broken, rusted and blunted steak knife Beth had given to the Termites to kill Anton, and there wasn’t a spot of blood on it.

I threw the piece of shit knife at the wall and then laid some boots in to the dent it left behind. It was bad enough that Carol was out of her mind and with cannibals, but she was also with a motherfucking rapist as well.

I was growling and cussing and close to breaking my leg on the metal wall when Rick jumped up in to the car.

“There are weapons gone too.” He said urgently.

“Fuck.” I cursed, rubbing my arms over my head in frustration.

“I gotta go after her Rick, I gotta get her back.” I declared while pacing towards him.

Rick nodded his head in agreement.

“I’ll come too.”

I gave him a firm pat on the back and then we both jumped out of the car to the gravel below. Our prison family were all outside waiting for us, along with David, Abraham, Eugene, Rosita and Tara. Beth was standing there with brows creased in concern and Judith in her arms.

“Imma track her down and bring her home.” I told her.

Beth bobbed her head up and down in agreement.

“I’m coming too.” Glenn said while stepping forward.

“Me too.” Said another half dozen voices.

“No.” Rick said firmly. “I need you to stay here and hold the fort in case they come back.”

He looked over the willing group of participants. “We’ll take Glenn and Abraham. The four of us should be able handle them.”

“I’ll come too.” Volunteered David. “There may be no need for blood shed if I can talk to them.”

Rick looked to me with doubt in his eyes, but then nodded his head in agreement.

I turned to Beth and told her and lil ass kicker I would be back soon. Beth didn’t say goodbye, but I’m sure she knew she didn’t need to.

* * *

 

We followed the trail over the fence and through the dirt on the other side. It looked as if they had left early in the morning while the ground was still damp, judging by the foot prints. If I had have spoken to her last night like I intended too she probably wouldn’t have left. I knew I was going to be questioning everything I had done over the past few days and mentally kicking my own ass until I found her.

The tracks seemed to follow along the fence line, so we split into two groups and went opposite directions. Rick seemed eager to come with me, so Glenn, David and Abraham went together the other way.

When we were alone I tried to release some of the tension that was building up in my head by confessing to Rick.

“I knew somethin’ was wrong.” I muttered angrily. “I shoulda done somethin’.”

“She tried to kiss me.” Rick blurted out in response.

I stopped in my tracks and looked back at him.

“When?”

“That night she took over on your watch.” Rick started pacing ahead slowly and I followed him listening to his tale. “Said she didn’t want to be alone. I told her I ain’t interested and she started wailing about me leaving her, and I knew she weren’t right. I shoulda done somethin’ too. I shouldna taken her out and left her after Karen died. She was part of our family, I shoulda taken better care of her.”

“We all shoulda taken better care of her.” I said thoughtfully, looking to my boots.

We followed the tracks around until we met up with the others again and then followed the path Abraham had found out into the woodland. We followed it for about an hour before realising it was spiralling outwards around Terminus. When it got dark and we still weren’t any closer to them we stopped walking.

“They’re circling us.” I put to words what we were all thinking.

“We better get back to the others and make sure they’re okay.” Suggested Rick “We’ll pick up from this point in the morning.”

We all nodded our agreement and trudged back to Terminus empty handed. When we got back we found everyone in the mess hall looking anxious and miserable.

“You find anythin’?” Beth was rocking the sleeping Judith on her shoulder.

I shook my head and looked to my boots.

“Nothin. No blood. No sign of a struggle. I’m pretty sure Carol is okay.” Rick informed everyone. “But they’re circling us, they’re waitin’ for somethin’. I don’t know what.”

“To attack.” Michonne sneered.

“I doubt it, their numbers are too low.” Rick said with a shake of his head.

“They’re waitin’ for us to leave.” Sasha said quietly. It was the first time I had heard her speak since Tyreese’s funeral. “We _should_ leave and give them this shit hole back.” She said angrier and louder.

“We should go to Washington.” Insisted Carl.

“The kids right.” Agreed Abraham.

“We should have gone there first day.” Sasha said glumly. “If we did, Tyreese wouldn’t have been bit, and if we got there and found a cure, then it wouldn’t even matter if he got bit, he wouldn’t have got sick and he would still be alive.”

We all stood in silence thinking it over.

“If we go, and they come back what will the rest of the survivors do.” Rick said nodding to the others who were listening in on the conversation.

“I’ll come to Washington.” Declared Jason, while raising his hand up.

“I’ll come too.” Insisted Jane, raising her hand after Jason and then having it yanked back down by her father.

“We want to stay.” Corrected her father.

Jane pouted and folded her arms moodily.

“I can’t guarantee it’ll be safe here if we go.” Rick told them.

“I’ll stay.” David volunteered, putting his hand up. “I know this place well. I know its strengths and weaknesses. I ran it for over a year before you came, and if my boy comes back, I’m sure I can keep everyone safe.”

“And Carol?” I asked.

“I’ll make sure she gets the help she needs.” David said with a nod.

I didn’t want to leave Carol with Gareth. I certainly didn’t want to leave her with Anton. I didn’t even want to leave her with David. But if anyone of us was qualified to help her, it was him. Maybe being away from Beth and I for a while would do her good. We could always come back once we had seen Eugene safely to DC.

When I looked around at everyone, especially Beth and Judith, I knew that we needed to take him there. A cure was more important than anything else. I didn’t want us living any longer than we had to in a world where we had to fear being eaten by the dead, and the living.

Rick looked to me like he was waiting for my approval.

“I’ll go.” I muttered. “Jus’ lemme have one more look for her.”

* * *

 

Rick, Abraham, Eugene and I stayed up late that night figuring out our plan of departure. We took an inventory of weapons and food, trying to decided what we would need for the trip and what we could leave behind for the others. I kept aside a small switchblade for Beth that I thought would be perfect to keep in her boot just in case. We decided we would take the two mini busses out so there was less chance of us being separated. We also had to look over road maps and figure out an alternative route if the roads had been blocked off like they were in Atlanta.

I came to bed sometime in the early hours of the morning. Beth was already curled up on her side sleeping peacefully. I pulled the switchblade from my pocket and dropped it in her boot for her to find in the morning. I didn’t bother taking off my clothes or my boots, or my knife belt. I just fell into the bed beside her fully dressed, just like old times.

Beth shifted her shoulders and sighed as I wrapped my arm around her, and then placed her warm hand on top of mine and squeezed it.

“How you doin’?” She murmured.

I wanted to say I was okay. I wanted to keep everything I was feeling bottled up inside. That was the way I always dealt with things. Having the sweet smelling warm and soft Beth in my arms made me feel safe, so I just let my thoughts spill out my mouth.

“I shoulda gone after her when Rick sent her away.” I told her regrettably.

She rolled over and rested her head on the pillow so she was facing me, with her nose only an inch away from mine. Then she wrapped her arm over my shoulder and started stroking the back of my neck, while she listened.

“I coulda brought her back. We mighta been together when the prison fell, I mighta been able to help her sooner.” I continued.

“You might have left with her, and then we might never have got together.” She replied gently without any jealousy.

I felt my lips press forward into a pout. As much as I hated leaving the prison, as much as I hated seeing Hershel killed, and all the other bad shit that had happened since then, I guess it was what brought Beth and I together.

I looked up towards Beth’s big blue eyes full of understanding and sympathy, and I tried to force a smile.

“Sometimes bad things happen to good people.” She said while continuing to stroke along my neck and shoulders. “And sometimes there’s nothin’ anyone can do to stop those bad things from happenin’.”

I dropped my eyes from hers and nodded, trying to accept what she was saying.

“And sometimes, if you let bad things consume you, there’s no comin’ back from it.” She went on.

I grunted and nodded, acknowledging that there was every bit the chance that Carol wouldn’t be coming back. To Terminus, or to who she used to be.

“Everythin’ happens for a reason.” Beth added.

I looked back to Beth’s comforting eyes. “I jus’ gotta know if she’s alive. Once I know I can let it go.”

Beth smiled softly then leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on my lips.

* * *

 

In the morning I untangled Beth’s limbs from mine gently so I didn’t wake her, and rolled silently off the mattress. I collected my Airborne and left the room, carefully shutting the door behind me with a soft click.

Mix was waiting outside the door, like he often was, and he followed me down the stairs and out of the building. I didn’t want anyone to come with me. I knew that Rick and Beth wouldn’t want me going alone, but I just wanted time to myself. I figured I could make an exception for the mutt.

Dean was on watch and he raised a curious eyebrow as Mix and I walked out the gate, but he didn’t say anything. I trudged through the woods back to the place we had left off last night. The tracks were still there and I was thankful it hadn’t rained anymore since the night before I fell in the creek. I brushed the fallen leaves away from the dirt surrounding the prints and Mix sniffed at them and started following them. I followed after him thinking I couldn’t have a better companion. Loyal, could alert you to walkers, could drag you from death, could track, and didn’t speak a word.

The tracks were doing the same as they did last night, spiralling outwards but still circling Terminus. I followed them until the sun had risen high and the winter chill had started to disappear from the air. Then Mix and I came upon their campsite. There was a small fire pit with fresh ash and beside that were several flat areas where bodies had slept. They were all fairly close together and overlapped in some places, but I was able to count them and determine there was one for each Termite and one extra. As long as no one slept on top of anyone else I was pretty certain I had the numbers right. I hoped that the extra one belonged to Carol and not Anton. I didn’t want her to be with them at all, but I preferred her to be with them and alive, than alone and dead.

I searched around the campsite for a short time trying to find a sign Carol had been there, and then spotted Mix sniffling at a pile of leaves on the ground. I went over and brushed the leaves away and saw thin curled lines drawn in the dirt. The lines were clean as if they were made by a fine pointed blade. A Bowie like Carols. It could have been any knife really, but what was written there made me think it was Carols. Scrawled in neat cursive was a name repeated four times ‘ _Sophia’_. And each name had a line crossed through it.

When I got back everyone was in the outside courtyard, packing up their things and saying goodbye. Beth and Rick both gave me concerned looks when I walked through, but they didn’t scold me for going off alone. Beth came over and joked about packing everything up for me while handing me my neatly folded Poncho. I smiled at her and she pulled me to her chest and gave me a squeeze.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” she whispered in to my ear.

“Yeah.” I muttered in reply.

* * *

 

There were sixteen of us who were going to DC. Ten from the prison, four newcomers, the kid Jason, and it looked as though Jane had convinced her parents to let her come along too. I didn’t know what help a small girl like her would be, but small girls had been surprising me lately. Abraham looked pissed that Harry, Noel and Dean weren’t coming, but I figured they needed muscle to stay at Terminus anyway.

We all packed ourselves in to the two minivans. Abraham drove one with his group Tara, Jason and Jane and Maggie and Glenn. Rick drove the other with the rest of us, and with Judith perched on Michonne’s knee on the back seat. There was barely any room in there as it was with all of our gear packed on the only spare seat, but then Mix decided to jump in with us and sat right on top of Beth and looked to the front with his one good eye like he was waiting for us to take off.

“No, Mix I’m going away now.” Beth said, giving the mutt a squeeze around its middle.

“Think he’s coming.” David said poking his head inside the car.

“But…he’s yours.”

“Mixy goes wherever he is needed, don’t you boy?” David reached in and gave Mix a scratch behind the ear. Mix gave David a lick on the hand in reply.

“He wants to save the world.” David added with a chuckle.

Beth looked to me for my approval and I nodded. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to my sidekick just yet.

* * *

 

We had been driving for a few hours when Beth lifted her head from my shoulder and started staring out the window.

“Rick, stop!” She called out urgently.

Rick glanced up to the rear vision mirror and then waved his arm out the window signalling to Abraham who was ahead of us to stop. We followed him for a few moments before he slowed and stopped on the side of the road. I looked back to Beth and wondered if she had forgotten something. I thought maybe it was her journal or one of her necklaces or some other thing she always seemed to be carrying, but I doubted she would make us turn back for something like that after hours of driving.

Everyone was staring at Beth now wondering why she needed us to stop. “What’s up?” Rick asked her as he turned to the back of the car.

“I need a bathroom break.” She declared, before looking to everyone while they rolled their eyes and groaned.

“What are you? Three?” I teased.

She smiled at me like she knew something I didn’t know, then unbuckled herself and grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me out of the car. I didn’t know why she was taking me to the bathroom with her, I guess she wanted me to keep watch. I went to take a cigarette out to smoke while she did her business, but before I could she grabbed at my hand and led me over to a big green sign, mounted on the side of the road that read ‘Welcome to South Carolina’ in big white letters.

“You’re leaving Georgia.” She said, giving my hand a squeeze.

She had remembered what I had said when we played that stupid game back in the cabin, about how I had never left the state of Georgia.

“Goodbye Georgia.” I sang with false enthusiasm, while I read over the writing on the sign and focused on the first five letters of Carolina

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: So I think this chapter had more Caryl than Bethyl. But Daryl really does care about Carol so it seems realistic.  
> The last two chapters are pretty much done. I just need to add some details and edit a bit. It’s going to be a bit risqué...


	11. Firsts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group find a place to spend the night, Daryl finds a replacement for something once lost, and the past catches up with Beth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So you have probably realised by now I’m not writing a fluffy love story. This is about finding love in a world that’s gone to shit. This story is full of grit, grime and gloom. You have been warned.

 

Rick had wanted to stay on route eighty five and head on into Charlotte, but as we got closer the road started to resemble a parking lot with abandoned cars all packed together, and the dead stumbling through them. There came a point where we could no longer weave through with the minivan without stripping shreds of the sides, or risking a walker through the windshield. So Rick pulled the car up beside Abraham and they decided they were going to go back to the nearest turn off and try another route.

After we made the turn off we drove for another hour before Rick tapped on the fuel gauge and decided we needed to stop and fill the car up with the gas we had stored in the cans in the back.

He honked the horn at Abraham who slowed to a stop ahead of us and then he got out the car and went to the back. Daryl jumped out of the car to help him. He had been fidgeting the whole trip, and grumbling about not being able to smoke in the car. The moment he had a foot out the door he had a cigarette lit and dangling from his lips. I rolled my eyes at him and decided to get out and take a real bathroom break this time. When I was done I took Judith off Michonne so she could do the same, and then went over to speak to Rick and Daryl.

I had to order Daryl away from Judith while he smoked the second cigarette in ten minutes. I gave him my best disapproving glare but he just grinned at me with the cigarette between his lips. They were talking about it getting dark soon and discussing if they were going to drive through the night or if they were going to stop and make camp somewhere. Daryl offered to drive the rest of the way so that Rick could get some rest, but before Rick could hand him the keys, Abraham came racing forward with an excited look on his face.

Abraham pointed off down the road and we all looked to see what it was that had got him all worked up. Now that the light was getting low we could make out what looked like a lit up sign off in the distance.

“What is it?” I asked.

“A gas station I would bet.” Abraham said with a grin.

“With power?” Rick asked raising a curious eyebrow.

“Must be on solar or a generator or somethin’.” Reasoned Abraham.

“Could be people there.” Daryl said cautiously.

“Could be, but there could also be gas. If we have to keep taking back roads, we may run out before Washington.” Abraham pointed out.

Rick rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Okay we’ll take one car up and check it out, if it’s safe we’ll come back for the others.”

Abraham’s car was the one that went ahead seeing as our car had Judith and Carl in it. Abraham ordered Eugene out and Rick took his place. They came back a few moments later declaring that not only was it empty ─other than a few walkers roaming around─ but it was also more than just a gas station.

We all got back in the cars and drove up to what looked like a motel. There was a long two story building with a white staircase climbing up to the second floor, a gas station and another building next door to the gas station that looked like a garage. The rooves of all the buildings were covered in solar panels so we figured the place had made use of green energy, since it was out in the middle of nowhere and all. Abraham declared that we would stay here the night and get some rest before making the remainder of the trip to Washington tomorrow. While everyone got out of the cars and collected their gear, Rick and Abraham rushed to the pumps with the gas cans to see if there was any gas left.

Daryl pulled out his bow ready to clear away some of the walkers that were lurking around the buildings and he handed me the crossbow.

“Get some more practice in.” He suggested.

The bow hadn’t been loaded yet, so I put my foot in the stirrup and drew back on the string. It was harder to load than I remembered. I had spent so much time at Terminus doing nothing much but cook, wash up and take care of Judith that my arms had gone soft again. After some struggling and straining I managed to get it latched. I put an arrow in the slot and aimed and fired into the nearest walker hitting it in the throat.

“Fuck.” I spat. Daryl raised an eyebrow at my cussing and I smiled sweetly back at him.

“Take another shot.” Daryl said nodding to the bow.

So I loaded the bow up again, still struggling and straining. It seemed it hurt my muscles even more the second time around. I had never had to load the bow twice in a row before.

“Gonna have guns like yours if I keep this up.” I told Daryl between grunts. He grunted in reply.

Once I finally had it latched I examined my throbbing hands, to see red grazes all over my fingers from where the string had pulled against my skin.

“Gonna have hands like yours too.” I said with a chuckle while holding out my hands for him to inspect. He looked at them and then groaned thoughtfully.

I took another shot at the walker and got him in the head. We had gained the attention of more walkers now so Daryl picked up his bow and shot five of them down before I had even managed to latch the crossbow again.

I took a shot at another getting him in the eye and then tried to string the bow again while grimacing at the pain in my hands.

Daryl stood behind me and took over latching the bow easily pulling on the string as if he was tying his shoe laces. When it was done he took the bow off me and used it himself to take out two more walkers. He handed the bow back to me with a stern look on his face, and I wondered if I had done something to upset him.

A group of us approached the motel while Rick and Abraham drove the cars up and reversed them into the bays so we could make a quick getaway if needed.

The motel looked as if people had tried to survive there after the turn, as there was a roll of chain link fence attached to the bottom of both staircases. Rick had grabbed some keys from inside the gas station and he took a group with him upstairs to open up the rooms and see if any dead were inside.

Daryl was walking along the bottom floor looking in the windows and banging on the doors to see if anything moved but they seemed to be empty. We heard some snarls from above us, but the others were able to take the walkers out with ease. When they had cleared out all the rooms they threw the corpses over the upstairs railing and let them splatter on the ground below.

“No fucking way.” I heard Daryl exclaim from the other end of the motel walkway. I walked over to where he was standing to see what had got him so excited.

There lying on the ground on its side was a motorcycle. It looked like a Harley Davidsons judging by the badge, but I didn’t know what type it was.

“Fat Boy.” Daryl called it.

I walked over to the motorcycle and saw that there was a female walker pinned underneath it. She had long ginger hair that was crusted with mud and dirt and she was wearing a dirty leather vest that looked weather worn, but still in good condition. She snarled and stretched out her hands weakly as we got closer to her. Daryl walked up to her, avoiding her grasping fingers, and slammed his knife down into her head, silencing her for good.

Daryl stepped beside the corpse and stooped down pushing his back into the seat. He put one hand under the seat of the bike and the other near the tank and started pushing backwards levering the bike upwards. Glenn saw him struggling and came over to help him, but by the time he got there Daryl had it up and the stand kicked into place. He started looking over the motorcycle rubbing over it like it was some holy shrine. Daryl’s bike had been destroyed back in the attack on the prison when daddy died. It was one of the only things Daryl spoke to me about those first few days after we got out together, how much he wished he could have rode out on that bike.

I looked down on the still body of the female walker. Her hair was fanned out over the bitumen and her dead eyes were gazing up into the evening sky. One of her legs was covered in black blood and her thigh bone was splintering through pieces of torn muscle.

“Did the bike squash her?” I asked.

“Prob’ly, The bike’s ‘bout 700 pounds.” Daryl replied without taking his eyes off the bike.

“That seems like a big bike for a girl that size.” I motioned to the slight frame of the walker. She was almost skeletal now, but she would have been small before.

“Looks like she was ridin’ bitch, she weren’t alone.”

“Someone left her here?”

Daryl grunted. “Looks like it.”

“Do you think it was her boyfriend?”

Daryl glanced down at the walker.

“Maybe.” He said with a shrug.

Whoever it was they must have known her. I was astonished that she could just be left here like that, pinned under the motorcycle and no one would help her, not even someone who was supposed to care about her.

“How could you just leave someone like that?”

Daryl shrugged his shoulders in reply. He knelt down by the bike and started talking in some foreign language with Glenn, about the motorcycle and what it needed to work again. The only words I understood were ‘water damage’ ‘electrics’ ‘transmission’ and ‘bearings’. Daryl said he could fix it if the parts were in the garage, but he wasn’t confident to fix the electrics. Glenn said he knew a bit about electronics before the turn, and he would try to help him fix it the next day. Daryl beamed up at him like a child presented with his birthday cake.

“Are you gonna take it?” I asked.

“Yeah, if I can get her workin’.”

“Shouldn’t we stay together?”

He glanced over his shoulder at me.

“We will. I can ride ahead scope things out, weave through traffic if we need. I can use it to draw attention from the walkers if there’s too many. It uses shit all gas so won’t be any drain on our supplies.”

“Can I ride too?” I had never ridden on a motorcycle before and I didn’t want Daryl out there alone drawing walkers away.

“Sure you can.” He replied with a deep nod of his head.

“You won’t leave me behind if it falls on me?”

He looked up at me with a squint in his eye like he was thinking about it. I crossed my arms in mock annoyance.

“I won’t leave you behind.” He chuckled to himself and then went back to talking about the bike with Glenn.

While they were talking their nonsense I had managed to drag the leather vest off the walker and try it on. It was a nice vest, tailored perfectly to my figure and similar to Daryl’s except where his had wings there were two eagles soaring into each other.

“Imma mothafuckin’ badass.” I drawled in my best Daryl Dixon voice. Daryl turned to me looked me over and then stepped to me and started pulling the vest of my shoulder.

“What are you doin’?” I slipped away from his grip.

“Take it off.” He demanded pointing a finger at the vest.

“It’s not that dirty, and it don’t smell that bad.” I said giving the jacket a sniff. It did smell a bit, but it just needed some airing. “I’ll be badass like you.” I said grinning up at him.

He made a grab for the front of the vest and pulled me in close to him and started talking low so no one else could hear.

“I don’t want you bein’ like me.” He murmured.

The smile fell from my face as I looked up into his stern blue eyes.

“I’m forever fuckin’ grateful that you saved my ass, and I’m real proud you learnt how to use my bow. But I don’t want you havin’ rough hands, and I don’t want you havin’ big guns. I don’t want you cussin’ all the time, and I don’t want you bein’ badass. I like you being small and soft, and good, and I like bein’ the one protectin’ you.”

“Oh.” Was all I could manage to reply.

“The reason I like ya so much is ‘cause you’re not like me.” He added, before forcing his lips in to an awkward smile.

I returned the smile, knowing that he meant well, and then slipped the vest off and let it fall to the ground.

…

We all took a room on the top level and the chain link fence was rolled back over the entrance to the stairs. Tara, Rosita, Sasha and Bob offered to take the watch for the night as they had all slept in the car on the way here.

By the time we got in the room it was dark. I knew that place was supposed to have power, but I took the candles out of my bag anyway, candles are more romantic. I placed them around the room, while Daryl went around and lit them with his lighter. When he was done he pulled out another cigarette and place it between his lips and went to light it.

“Uh uh.” I said pulling it from his lips and throwing it to the small table by the entrance to the room. He rolled his eyes at me and then picked it up and put it back in his pocket.

“I gotta take a piss.” Daryl told me, oh so eloquently.

I giggled at him, and he smiled back at me before heading into the bathroom, and taking a candle in there with him. I wondered if he was going in there to smoke, and decided I was too tired to argue with him if he was. I dropped my bag on to the floor, toed out of my boots letting the switchblade Daryl had given me slip back inside it, and strolled over to the sleeping area that was in the back of the motel room. I threw myself back on the bed and waved away some of the dust that puffed out of the sheets. The dust didn’t bother me at all. The sheets were all tucked in to the bed, so either this bed hadn’t been slept in since before the turn, or the people who stayed here last were particular about making beds.

I heard the sound of the toilet flush and heard Daryl whistle to himself. Then I heard the sound of water pattering rapidly. So I jumped off the bed and walked in to the bathroom to see if it was what I thought it was.

The sight before me filled me with joy. Daryl was dressed only in his jeans and the muscles on his arms and back were flexing as he leaned into the shower. But that wasn’t the best part. There was a stream of water coming from the shower head, and splashing all over Daryl’s bare feet.

“This place has its own water supply too.” Daryl beamed, looking at me under the arm he was using to support himself on the wall.

I felt a little shudder of pleasure run up my body as I thought of having a shower again. The water would probably be freezing, but I didn’t care, I hadn’t had a shower since back at the prison.

Then I saw Daryl’s face fall slack. He tipped his head up to the ceiling and rolled his eyes back into his head like he was in ecstasy. I could now see that steam was billowing up from the floor of the shower.

I let out an astonished gasp. “Hot water?”

“Fucking yes.” Daryl said enthusiastically.

He pulled his hand from the wall and dropped his jeans in one quick motion and kicked them off to the corner of the bathroom. He jumped in the shower and let out an orgasmic moan as the water run down over his long hair and streamed out over his broad shoulders and strong arms.

I felt myself quiver a bit between the legs at the sight.

Daryl wiped the water from his eyes with his thumb and forefinger and then looked up at me. Gosh darn he looked so sexy with his wet hair all pushed away from his face like that.

“You should hop in. Don’t know how long this water’s gonna last.”

Hot shower with Daryl? Yes please!

I ripped off my sweater and tee together excitedly and threw them to the floor, then I unclasped my bra and flung that on top of my clothes, I undid my belt and pulled my jeans down. Then I tucked my thumbs into my underwear and stopped, suddenly remembering it was the wrong time to be getting naked with Daryl.

He watched me while I stood there with my thumbs in my underwear pouting.

“You gettin’ in or what?” He said leaning his head out of the water and allowing the water to run over his shoulders and down his chest.

“I can’t.”

“Why the hell not?”

“You know.” I said with a shrug, hoping I wasn’t going to have to explain in detail.

He glanced at my underwear and then back at my face and he grinned widely.

“After all the shit I’ve seen you think I care ’bout a bit of lady blood? Get your ass in ‘ere Greene.” He chuckled to himself and then turned around so his scarred and tattooed back was to me, glistening wet in the candle light.

I hesitated for a moment wondering how awkward it would be to shower with Daryl like this. It kind of seemed like a sacred thing that women kept to themselves, but the thought of having a hot shower was so tempting, and there may not be enough hot water if I had one after Daryl. I shrugged my shoulders and dropped my underpants and kicked them behind me and figured if it didn’t bother Daryl then it didn’t bother me either.

I jumped into the shower behind him and shuddered as the hot water pelted down on my skin, massaging my aching muscles. Working the crossbow wasn’t only murder on the fingers and the arms; it was also killing the bundle of muscles that ran from my neck to my shoulder.

Daryl turned around when I was in the water and examined my nakedness with a smirk on his face. He reached behind my head and pulled out the tie that was holding my ponytail and then tossed it out of the shower.

“You look mighty fine when you’re all wet.” He pulled his lip into his mouth and bit on it while he inspected me. “ _And_ when you’re all wet.” He repeated raising a suggestive eyebrow.

“Stop it.” I said slapping him playfully and thinking about how amazing he looked all wet too.

There were small bottles of soap and shampoo in the shower shelf. I grabbed the bottle of shampoo and squeezed it into my hand, and rubbed it through my scalp. I closed my eyes while I massaged it in, and let out a long, tension releasing groan. I opened my eyes to see Daryl watching me through slightly squinted sultry eyes, and I felt another throb of desire pulsate through me.

“You look like you haven’t washed your hair in like, three years.” I said nodding towards his hair, looking for a distraction from my urges.

“Nah uh, I washed it last year.” He said with a sideways grin.

“Lemme wash it.” I started tugging and pushing on his shoulders trying to turn him around.

“It goes all fluffy when I wash it.” He said fighting me off.

“C’mon, I like your smell and all but I think things are actually livin’ in there.” I flicked at his long wet locks.

“You ain’t gonna deprive the possums of their home are ya?”

I pushed him around again and this time he didn’t resist.

“You don’t really care none for animals at all do you?” He joked, as I rubbed the shampoo into his scalp.

“Only the ones with cute tushes.”

I watched as the soap suds slipped down his muscular scarred back, between his cute back dimples and then between the cheeks of his firm backside. I felt another throb between my legs and struggled with myself to push the desire from my mind.

I rubbed the soap into his shoulders, smoothing it down over his neck to the top of his bicep feeling the muscles slip under my fingers. I pushed and kneaded and he let out a soft groan of delight. Then I rubbed down his back, pressing my fingers over the scars that crisscrossed there. He gasped and tensed up a little when I did that.

“Thought it didn’t hurt no more?” I murmured into his ear.

“It don’t. Just not used to bein’ touched there is all.” He said in a strained voice.

I stepped back and rubbed the soap on to his back dimples and then cupped my hands over his backside and gave them a squeeze. He turned suddenly so the back of my fingers were resting against his engorged penis.

“You gonna wash the front too?” He asked slyly.

I pulled my hands away and rubbed the soap over his chest and smirked at his disappointed look. I ran my hands up over his neck, to his jaw and then behind his ears, and finally through his hair to rinse out the soap.

While my fingers ran through his long hair, He took his arms behind me and squeezed the bottle of body wash in to his hands. He rubbed up over my back, then to my backside and then reached down and brushed between my thighs.

“Don’t.” I said, flinching away.

“Told ya, it don’t bother me.”

He slipped his soapy hands over my hip, then up my abdomen. He slid his palms up my chest and then pushed up the bottom of my breasts using the index finger in each hand. When he reached my nipples he closed his thumb over them and gave them a little tweak. I let out a sharp gasp and then shook my head in an effort to shift the thoughts away.

“It don’t seem right.” I shuddered slightly as he massage around my nipples.

“What ain’t right about it?” He said while pushing me back against the cold tiles. He braced his hands against the wall beside my head and my eyes locked on to his arms as they flexed beside my face. He leaned forward and slipped his tongue gently into my mouth and then flicked it up so it curled against the underside of my top lip.

A shudder ran through my body, and I clenched my legs together trying to squeeze away the tension that was building there.

“Ever had sex in the shower?” He murmured against my lips.

“That’s a silly question. You’ve been there every time I’ve had sex.” I murmured back.

He moved his mouth to my ear and bit lightly on my ear lobe, and then started kissing behind my ear breathing heavily and making my hairs stand on end.

“Neither have I.” He murmured into my ear, while pressing his warm, soapy, wet body against mine and letting me feel his hard penis push against my abdomen.

“Oh yeah?” I whimpered.

The candlelight was catching in the water that was rippling over his shoulders, down his back and over his backside, accentuating every muscle. It made him look like a golden statue of a Greek god.

“First time for everythin’.” He murmured before dipping his head and licking up the soapy water that ran from my ear to the base of my neck.

My legs started to tremble and the throb between my legs turned into a desperate, longing ache.

“I…I can’t.”

_Shut up Beth._

“Sure you can.” He ran his hand firmly down my back over my backside, and down to my thighs. Then bending his knees slightly he pulled my thigh towards him so that my leg wrapped around him, with my thigh resting on his. Most of my weight was being held by him, but I stood on my tip toes to balance the other leg.

“Oh God!” I called out, feeling his shaft pressing between my lips, and rubbing against my most sensitive spot. My head was spinning and my legs were trembling, and my toes on the tiles were starting to slip. I put my hands to his shoulders to steady myself.

“The names Daryl.” He murmured while he took himself in one hand and pulled his hips back until I could fill the end of him pressing against me. Then he drove into me forcing me back against the wall.

I immediately let out a moan and arched my back and dug my nails into his shoulders as my muscles started contorting in waves around the length of him.

“Already?” He had a satisfied grin on his face.

“Oh my God, just fuck me!” I said wrapping my arms around his shoulders and lifting my other leg and wrapping it tightly around his waist.

“I told ya, I didn’t like you swearin’.” He pulled out of me a couple of inches, using his hands to tip my hips back, and then gave me a hard thrust that knocked my head back against the wall, and sent another jolt of pleasure through my body.

“And I told ya, the name’s Daryl.” He thrust into me again, punishing me in the most delicious way possible.

“Oh _fff_.” I blew between teeth and lip, trying to control my outburst.

“That’s a good girl, now you just gotta say my name.” He gave me another single thrust watching my face intensely.

“Daryl.” I called between gasps.

“Say it again.” He pounded into me again, pushing against my tingling bunch of nerve endings, and reaching deep inside to a place only he knew.

“Daryl!” I cried while throwing my head back, and ignoring the pain when it hit the tile again.

He put his mouth to my exposed throat and started biting, kissing, licking and sucking while I continued to moan. He held me firmly on the backside with his strong hands and used them to help draw in and out of me, while my back and shoulders were pressed against the wall, and my shaky arms rested on his shoulders.

I put one of my hands behind his head and put the other one in between his shoulder blades and gripped on to him as tightly as I could pressing my breasts into his chest. I put my mouth to his shoulder and squealed into the wet flexing muscles.

I moaned his name over and over again, while he pushed himself deeper and deeper inside of me bursting the bubbles of pleasure that were brewing there.

He pounded into me for what felt like an eternity, while I shuddered and writhed and convulsed and clenched, until I felt like the only part on my body that existed was the part he was slamming himself into.

A toe curling orgasm took hold of me and I bit into his shoulder in an effort to control my cries, while I convulsed around him. He gave me one hard, deep thrust and I could feel him throbbing inside me, meeting my convulsions. He threw his head back, squeezed his eyes shut, and groaned while he made a series of slow and shallow thrusts until he was just moving his hips around ever so gently against me.

When he had finished groaning and panting and cussing under his breath, he opened his steely blue eyes and gazed into my own, then gave a weary chuckle.

“Did you just finish?” I breathed.

“uh huh.”

“Inside me?”

“Yeah, that’s okay now ain’t it?”

I tried to think back to sophomore human biology. I didn’t remember if we had ever discussed it.

“I don’t know that it is.”

Daryl stopped with his gentle hip movements and slowly put my legs back down and pulled himself out of me. He dropped his eyes down avoiding my uncertain gaze while he washed himself clean.

“Don’t know?” He glanced back up at me.

I shook my head completely uncertain about the safety of the sex we just had and then shuddered as I came to realise the water had gone cold.

…

After our invigorating shower I stayed in the bathroom, wearing just my underwear and wrapped up in a towel and looked into the foggy mirror. I ran my fingers through my tangled, freshly washed hair and took in my flushed appearance. I wondered how much of our shower could have been heard by the neighbour, as the bathroom did seem to echo a bit. I discovered just how much when I heard a male and female voice giggling together. I tried to think who had taken the room next to ours. It might have been Jane and Jason, or maybe even Michonne and Rick. I wondered if they were laughing at what they had heard moments ago, or if they were finding amusement in something else.

When I got out of the bathroom I found Daryl lying naked on the bed looking very pleased with himself. I dropped the towel and crawled into the bed and curled up beside him. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in closer to him.

“What are you so happy about?” I asked.

“Look what I found.” He leaned to the side of the bed and pulled out a plastic zip lock bag from the side table draw. He held the bag in front of my face. I could see two rolled cigarettes inside.

“Cigarettes?” I asked with a raised brow, confused as to why he would be so excited about two measly cigarettes.

He started laughing at me.

“You can’t be that innocent Greene!” He popped the bag open and then held it under my nose.

“Smell.”

I took the bag and smelt the contents and my nose was filled with a stale musty odour. It smelt nothing like tobacco.

“What are they?” I asked, holding my nose.

“Blunts.” He said plainly. That didn’t make any sense they looked twisted to a point to me.

“Aunt Mary.” He was looking at me like I was a fool. I shrugged my shoulders not knowing what his aunt had to do with it.

“Chronic, weed, cannabis, mah-ree-waana.”

“Drugs!” I exclaimed dropping the bag like it was poison.

“It’s not _drugs_ Greene.” He said snatching the bag back up and pulling one of the thingies out.

“It is so Daryl, I learnt about it in high school.”

“It’s natural, it grows from mother Earth.” He put one in his mouth and then reached for the lighter.

“What are you doing.” I said knocking his hand away.

“We’re gonna share one.” He mumbled while holding it out of the corner of his mouth.

I shook my head. “No we are not, I’m not gonna fry my brain.”

He pulled it out of his mouth and started chuckling loudly at me with his broad shoulders shaking.

“Good one Greene.” He said between chuckles. “You been listenin’ to too much government shit.”

“I have not. I read about it. I know it can make you paranoid and lazy and hungry…and…it makes you laugh at stupid things.”

“I smoked it for years, and I ain’t laughing at anythin’ stupid.”

He put it back in his mouth and started flicking at his lighter trying to light it. I snatched the thingy out of his mouth.

“I thought you didn’t want me to be like you.” I reminded him.

He pushed his brows together in a frown.

“C’mon girl, you don’t wanna get high for the first time with me?”

“I’ll share a lot of firsts with you, but not that.” I said firmly.

He let out a long sigh and then snatched it out of my hand and threw it over his shoulder so it landed on the ground beside the bed. Then he tossed the bag on the floor to meet it.

“Whatever you say ma’am.” He crowed.

I smiled at him and then tucked myself in to him resting my head on his shoulder, and he pulled the blankets over the both of us and blew the candle on the side table out.

The room was momentarily black until my eyes adjusted to the light.

“What was your first time like?” I whispered into the darkness.

“Smoking weed?”

“No, having sex.”

“It was shit.” He said stroking his hand along my back.

I waited for him to expand, but Daryl was known to be a man of few words, and he would need encouragement.

“Why?” I prompted.

“I was bent. I was fourteen and she was...I dunno…in her twenties? She was one of Merle’s friends. Think she only did it ‘cause she thought Merle would give her some crystal.”

I had heard of crystal before, and knew it was a drug, but I wasn’t entirely sure what kind of drug.

“What was her name?”

“Fucked if I know.”

“So you never saw her again?”

“I saw her at parties and shit, but I never fucked her again if that’s what you’re askin’.”

I pouted into the darkness wondering what it would be like to share something so special with someone and then never be with them again.

“How about your first love?”

I felt his body tense beside me. I waited for him to reply and when he didn’t I poked him in his chest and mumbled “hmmm?”

“I ain’t ever loved no one…before.”

I thought back to the time we spent in the pecan grove and how he had told me he didn’t know how to make love. I had thought what he was trying to say was that he didn’t know how to love. I wondered if he knew a little more about it now. I wanted to ask him what he meant by _‘before’_. I wanted to know if he meant he had never loved anyone before me, but I was a little scared that wasn’t what he meant at all. So I just kept silent and stroked along his chest until we were both asleep.

…

I woke up to the smell of Daryl’s freshly washed ─ and ridiculously fluffy ─ hair spread across my face. We had shifted in the night and I was now lying curled into his back with my arm draped over his shoulder and my leg wrapped around his waist.

I snuggled into the warmth of him and thought about how much I would love to lie in bed with him all day, rather than make the trip the rest of the way to DC. I nuzzled my nose into his neck and ran my hand down across his firm chest and belly, feeling the contours of his body. As I reached downward my hand brushed against something hard and smooth. I wrapped my hand around it, realising what it was and wondering what dreams he was having to make it so hard. I gave a little squeeze and he shifted a bit in the bed.

I began running my hand up and down the shaft gently at first and then firmer. He let out a groan in response.

“Why are you so hard?” I whispered into his ear.

“I always am in the mornin’.” He mumbled in reply.

I continued with the long firm strokes, gripping him at the base and pulling firmly until I reached the tip and then starting all over again.

“So you weren’t dreamin’ of me?” I whispered again. His shoulders shuddered a little as my lips brushed his ear.

“I mighta been.” He admitted.

“What were you dreamin’ of?” I asked, leaning over a little so I could see his face.

“Somethin’ we have to go back in the shower to do.” He said turning into me and lying on his back. I gave him another firm squeeze and drew my hand up until I had let him go and he flicked back on to his abdomen. He let out grunt in response.

“Maybe not.” I said with a raise of my eyebrows.

I crawled on top of him and kissed him gently on the lips then I let my tongue slip into his mouth and flicked it against his top lip like he had done to me last night.

“Yeah?” He murmured against my lips.

I kissed the hair on his chin, then under his chin where the hair disappeared, then along his throat and then his collarbone.

I looked up at him to see if he had any idea where I was going. And he looked down on me with a raised brow like he had no clue.

I grinned to myself and then kissed his chest. I ran my tongue through the fine hairs that grew there and spiralled it around his nipple, and then ran my tongue back over his chest and did the same to the other nipple. He let out a little sigh as my tongue touched each one. I moved downwards, kissing him on his ribs, then on his naval, and then on his hips, where he flinched a little laughed.

“Where are you goin? Greene.” He asked me while propping himself on his elbows.

“Somewhere I’ve never been before.” I replied, while looking up at him and trying to look as sultry as possible.

“Are you sure you wanna do…ahh.” He let out a groan as I wrapped my hand around him and put my mouth straight over the end of his penis.

I really didn’t know what I was doing. My girlfriends in school had done this to their boyfriends before, but we never really spoke about it, they never gave me any tips. All I knew was that you put it in your mouth and suck it. So I sucked on it a little and enjoyed him sighing and groaning and twisting his hands in the sheets. Then I moved my lips down trying to take as much of him in my mouth as I could.

His penis hit me in the wrong spot and I spat it out gagging and choking.

“Slow down, girl.” He said with a chuckle.

“I don’t really know what I’m doing.” I said while I wrapped my hand back around him and examined it, planning out my attack.

“You gotta treat it like a lolly pop, and then you treat it like its….oh holy fuck… yep just like that.”

He threw his head back on the bed and grunted and groaned as I licked it like a lollipop and then rolled my tongue around the base of his head like I was slurping up drips from an ice-cream. He looked back down over his heaving chest and I looked up at him through lowered lids. While he was still in my mouth I asked him “How does that feel?” But it came out “heh ahh ah uh.”

Then he tried to say something to me, but I couldn’t make it out among his grunts and groans.

Big, strong, brave Daryl Dixon was powerless and completely under my control.

I put my hand to the base of his penis and wrapped it firmly around and then I moved the hand up and down while I moved my mouth in the same way.

Daryl let out a long groan before he was interrupted by a loud bang on the window. I jumped away from Daryl, falling off the side of the bed and landing with a thump on the floor.

“You comin’?” Called Glenn from outside.

“No I’m fuckin’ not.” Daryl yelled towards the door. “Thanks to you.” He said under his breath.

I could hear Glenn chuckling outside the window. “C’mon man, you want to get that bike running before we leave, right?”

I had crawled to my knees and was now resting my chin on the bed watching Daryl as he grunted and cussed while he rolled off the bed and went searching for his clothes. When he sat back on the bed to pull on his boots I climbed on behind him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.

He turned and kissed me on the cheek.

“We’ll finish that later.” He said with a grin on his face.

…

While Glenn and Daryl were fixing the bike I decided to enjoy the last hot shower I was likely to have for a long time. When I got out I dried myself and got dressed in my jeans, tee and sweater and then tied my hair in a ponytail.

I pulled back the blinds on both the windows to allow some natural light into the room and then I slid open the glass paned window above the bed to try to get some of the stale smell out. I admired the view out the window of the dense green woodland and took note of the metal grated fire escape running alongside the rear of the motel.

I left the room and padded across the icy cold concrete searching for Rick to see if he needed help with Judith. I found him in the room next door to mine and he handed her over gratefully to me. He told me that he and Abraham had some things to organise before they left and they wanted to give Daryl some time to fix the bike.

“He deserves it.” Rick said.

“He does.” I agreed.

That was when we heard the familiar and terrifying sound of rapid firing gun shots. Rick pushed past me and ran outside and leaned over the railing. I followed him out and saw that there were three cars parked down near the garage and there were men firing towards it. I panicked as I thought of Daryl being down in there working on the bike and scanned the buildings below to see if I could spot him. I saw him racing from one of the mini vans to the back of the Garage with a rifle in his hand.

“Get Judith inside.” Rick called up to me, he had made his way downstairs while I was looking for Daryl. I nodded my head and then took Judith back in to my room. I grabbed my bag and raced over to the bed with Judith on my hip and started packing it up. Then I heard a familiar voice call from the open doorway that sent a shiver up my spine.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the one who got away.” Came the sickeningly smooth voice of Anton.

…

I screamed for help as soon as I saw him, but there was so much gun fire down stairs there was no way anyone could hear me. My bow was by the side of the door along with Daryl’s bow, my boots and my switch blade and Anton was blocking the path. I searched around the room frantically for anything I could use as a weapon.

I grabbed the heavy candle and ditched it at his head, but he dodged away from it and reached towards me. Anton wrenched Judith free from my arms and tossed her on to the couch. I watched in horror as she landed hard on the cushion, but was momentarily relieved when I saw her pull herself up and start crying, shocked but seemingly unhurt.

I turned away from Anton and leapt up on to the bed and dove straight for the screen window above the bed. I landed hard up against the mesh, but it gave and let me topple out the window and on to the grated walkway below. My shoulder was aching from the rough land, but I pushed pain from my mind and pulled myself to my feet and ran straight for the ladder. I climbed on to the ladder and half slid, half fell down to the gravelled ground below.

Anton had climbed out the window after me. He raced down the walkway and then slid down the ladder more skilfully than I did. I screamed for help again as I backed down the slope behind the motel towards the woods, but the gunfire continued and my voice was drowned out.

From out of nowhere a bundle of white fur dove in towards Anton with teeth bared and directed towards his throat. Anton dodged backwards and swung a fist outwards into Mix’s skull and I heard a sickening crunch. I watched as Mix’s limp body fell to the ground. I let out a whimper at the sight of my still, faithful companion, before turning and racing into the thicket of trees.

I kept running blindly with tears stinging my eyes, and stones tearing at my feet. Branches leapt out at me from every which way and clawed at my skin and clothes, and my lungs burned with exhaustion. I wished I had of put my boots on this morning. I wish I had the switch blade Daryl gave me or the little hunting knife I had lost long ago. Even that stupid little steak knife I had carried around in my boot for so long would be welcome at this point. I wished I had of killed Anton when I had the chance.

My shaking legs gave way as my barefoot landed on a broken branch and sent a wave of pain through me. I stifled my groan and then rolled into a nearby bush trying to hide from Anton.

“We playin’ hide and seek now?” Anton called as he searched in the bushes around me.

“My niece liked to play hide and seek. She played it with me the day she died. She wasn’t very good at it.”

Anton chuckled to himself and my skin crawled as I thought about how his niece had died.

My foot was throbbing from where the branch had pierced through the skin, and the pain gave me an idea. I searched around under the bush for a stick that I might be able to use to defend myself. The first one I found was still green and refused to break, but the second one snapped into a sharp point. Anton turned as the sound of the snap revealed my position, and he lunged towards me. I stabbed the stick down into his hand and he let out a wail before removing the stick and tossing it away.

While he cursed and yelled and pressed at the blood that was bubbling from his hand, I made another run for it. I had only made it a few steps before I was stopped by a slender hand wrapped around my flailing wrist and it jerked me backwards. Shocked at the smooth skin and fine fingers I felt, I swung around to see who had grabbed me and fell to my knees when I saw Carol’s blue eyes staring back at me.

Carol fell to her knees beside me and then pulling me by the wrist she swung my body around so that my back was against her chest, and her left arm was draped over my chest and to my shoulder.

I felt a wave of relief wash over me as I sat in Carols secure embrace.

“Thank God Carol! I am so...”

I was cut off when I felt the bite of cold steel pressed to my throat and realised Carol was holding her knife there.

“What are you doing?” I wailed and she pressed the blade in firmer.

Anton was stalking towards me with a sadistic grin on his face, and blood running over his injured hand. He dropped to his knees before me and started tugging at the belt in his pants.

“I missed you girl.” He hissed.

“You broke Anton’s heart when you left him for Daryl, Beth. You broke his heart and mine.” Carol murmured into my ear.

I tried to steady my erratic breath as I watched Anton flick his belt apart and then start unbuttoning his jeans.

“But Anton forgives you and he still wants you, so he’s gonna take you now, and you’re gonna let him okay?” Carol went on.

“No! That’s not okay!” I muttered, while trying to pull at her arm. It wasn’t going to give. “Carol, what are you doing, this isn’t right.” I wanted to struggle and I wanted to run, but her knife was pressed so hard into my throat I thought the slightest move would open me up. So I just moaned uncontrollably, scared that if I screamed the movement would push the knife in deeper.

“Shhh, just be a good girl and let him take you, and you’ll be his, and Daryl will be mine, and everything will be the way it’s supposed to be.” Carol murmured. Then she whispered _“This isn't about you repopulating the Earth.”_ Before twitching her head to the side like she was shaking something away. She sounded as if she was talking to herself. If she was talking to me I had no idea what she was saying.

Anton now had his pants around his knees and he was tearing at my jeans. I couldn’t even struggle for fear of what Carol would do, so I just let him pull them down and wept helplessly.

“Carol…please…help me.” I whispered between sobs.

Carol ignored my pleas and started rocking with me held tight against her chest. I could feel warm wetness running in between our cheeks that were pressed together, and I knew she was crying.

All I could do was cry with her.

I wailed as I felt Anton force his way into me, and felt the steel pierce the skin as my throat bobbed. Anton made a sickening groaning sound into my ear and Carol whimpered into my other ear. I felt furious, helpless, confused, hurt, lost, betrayed and physically ill. Carol stroked along my arm with her left hand and whispered.

_“It’s okay honey, it’s okay.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah...discuss freely


	12. Lasts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lives are lost and family is torn apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you couldn’t handle the last chapter, then you wont be able to handle this either.

There was a sudden loud banging on the window, that left the glass pane shuddering. The heat and moistness of Beth’s mouth slipped off my cock and in a tumble of naked arms and legs, she disappeared off the side of the bed and landed somewhere out of sight with a thud.

“You comin’?” Glenn called from outside the window.

_Are you fucking kidding me!_

“No I’m fuckin’ not.” I yelled towards the door. “Thanks to you.” I muttered under my breath. He just had to bang on my window at exactly the wrong time.

I could hear Glenn chuckling outside the window, like he knew exactly what he had just interrupted. “C’mon man, you want to get that bike running before we leave, right?”

I felt like I could kill him now more than I felt like killing him when he withheld my cigarettes.

I turned to where I had last seen Beth disappear of the bed, to see her wide blue innocent eyes watching me with her chin rested on the side of the bed. I had to fight every primal urge in my body to not roll over, grab her by the ears and get her to finish what she started. But with Glenn outside the door, I didn’t think either of us could stay in the zone.

So I rolled off the bed and went searching for my clothes. I pulled on my jeans shirts and vest and then sat down to pull my boots on. The blunts I had tossed last night where still on the floor. I thought it would be a waste to leave them. We could use them to celebrate when we got Eugene safely to DC, I’m sure someone would want to share them. So I tucked them into my cigarette packet, besides my last two cigarettes. Beth climbed on to the bed behind me and wrapped her small arms around my shoulders, just as I tucked the pack away.

_Don’t start lying to the girl._

I figured if she didn’t ask then I wouldn’t be lying. I turned and studied her angelic face with the smooth white skin and pink soft lips that had just been around my cock. It’s not like I could corrupt her any more than I already had. I gave her a kiss on her hot flushed cheek.

“We’ll finish that later.”

Beth lay back on the bed, hair spread against the pillow and bra barely covering her tits. I wondered how long it would take to fix the bike and if Rick would be sympathetic to a quickie before we left.

* * *

 

As soon as I was out the door I lit up another cigarette. It would probably be a couple of hours of work at least, and I couldn’t smoke in the garage. Glenn and I rolled the bike over to the garage and Glenn went around and opened the door for me. The garage was dusty and full of cobwebs, but it was also filled with parts. There was a wrecked frame of a bike in there so I figured this garage had worked on motorcycles at some time. I had worked at a HOG shop one summer when I was younger and the same model had been brought in several times, although it was new back then, and now this one was ten or so years old.

The bike had been sitting out in the rain for at least a few months and it was spotted with rust and possibly water logged. I was fairly certain I could get her going again, depending on the damage done. So I put the bike into the paddock stands and searched around for what I would need. I got to checking the wheel and brake system while Glenn had a look at the wiring harness and got to making a new one.

“So, how are things going with Beth?” Glenn asked casually while he was crimping wires to terminals.

I glanced up at him in the middle of examining the sprocket and grunted in reply.

“That good huh?”

“S’okay.” I muttered.

“Do you ah…find the age difference a problem?”

I dropped the wrench I was holding and then glared up at him.

Glenn held his hands up defensively.

“Why, did her sister say somethin’?”

“She just wonders what you guys have in common is all.”

I stood up and moved over to the next wheel.

“You wanna know what we have in common? We live in a shitty ass world, we care about each other and we want to survive. It’s the same as what you and Maggie have in common, am I right?”

Glenn raised his eyes to the roof in thought and then gave a shrug and smiled at me.

Glenn spent the rest of the time telling me how he used to wire up computers for his geeky friends as a side job before the turn. I told him stories of working in the HOG shop. He asked me why I left, and I told him how Merle had robbed the place and been caught on camera, and being a small town everyone knew he was my brother, so that was added to a long list of my short term jobs. Glenn chuckled at my story like it was nothing out of the ordinary.

When I had changed all the parts that needed changing and cleaned her up, I took the bike off the paddock stands and hopped on to her. I stroked over the fuel tank and the leather seat, and asked her to be a good girl.

“Let’s start ‘er up.” I said to Glenn with a grin and he took a step back, as if the bike might bite him. I hoped she would at least growl at him. I pulled out the kicker and gave it a push. She whirred a little and then stopped. I pushed it again and she whirred a little longer this time, but then cut out again.

“You hook everythin’ up right?” I asked Glenn.

“I guess…I don’t really know.” He replied with a shrug.

I give it one more push and almost came when I felt it rumble to life and roar between my legs. It felt about half as good as Beth’s tongue on my dick, which was still pretty fucking good.

Glenn clapped his hands together and took a few steps back while I gave the bike a few revs. He looked just about as happy about the bike as I was with a grin from ear to ear, but then his face suddenly fell.

“You hear that?” He called over the roar.

I shut the bike off and listened out. I could hear it, it sounded like gunshots. I kicked the stand, leapt of the bike and raced for the door following Glenn. We both fell to the oil stained ground and poked our heads cautiously out of the doorway to see what was going on.

Over by the gas station I could spot three cars. Two trucks and a hatch, like the ones that were left at Terminus. The cars were empty, but I could spot the shadows of figures moving about behind them.

“Gareth.” I hissed over to Glenn.

“I gotta get to Maggie.” Glenn said creeping out of the door way and making a sharp turn around the corner, scrambling through the loose stones on the road in an effort to get to his feet. The Termites were shooting towards an abandoned truck and Abraham and Jason where taking cover behind it, firing blindly into the open space whenever the return fire halted.

While Gareth was distracted by Abraham and Jason, I followed Glenn around to the back of the garage, and pressed my back against the brick wall while I planned my next move. I had left my Airborne upstairs and all I had on me was my Busse. It would be useless unless I was up close, and there wasn’t enough cover between here and the Termites to get close enough. We had a huge cache of weapons in the back of the minivan though, and getting there would require far less cover. I crouched low and ran over to the van skimming my hands and knees along the ground on the way and Glenn followed behind me, matching me pace for pace. We opened the back and Glenn pulled out his riot gear and grabbed an M4 and I grabbed two M16s.

Rick and the others clamoured to the vans and started ripping out guns and ammo for themselves. The brainiac Eugene lingered midway on the staircase looking like he was lost. I pointed a finger up to him.

“Stay there.” I demanded. I wasn’t about to lose our payload one day out from its destination.

“Where’s Beth?” I called to Rick as I backed away from the van.

“She’s got Judith.” He replied before racing off carrying an armful of guns.

I glanced up at the door to our room and saw it was still open. As long as I could keep the gunfire away from the motel, Judith and Beth would be safe.

While we were running towards the abandoned cars to take cover, Glenn caught a bullet and fell to the ground. Rick and I grabbed him by his vest and dragged him to safety behind a truck. Maggie came racing over panic stricken and started shaking his limp body. Glenn grunted and opened his eyes and then revealed the bullet had been stopped by Kevlar. I slapped him hard on the shoulder for making me worry and then started firing blindly in the direction of the Termites until there was a lull in gunfire. Then Rick put his back to the car peeked around the fender and started calling out to Gareth.

“We don’t need to do this.”

“You didn’t need to lock us up. You didn’t need to kill most of our family and friends. You slaughtered them in the night while they were feasting.” Gareth called back.

“We were just keeping our people safe, tryin’ to survive, just like you.”

“Trying to survive hey? Maybe that’s what it was at the start but then we discovered that we really like the taste of human flesh.”

Shots were fired towards Ricks head, missing him by inches. So we all followed Ricks lead and started opening fire again. We rained bullets down on the Termites and hoped our superior numbers would bring us victory.

“We’re gonna eat you raw.” Gareth called out. “We’re gonna snap your bones and suck out your marrow.”

Jane and Carl were against a car next to us, and I could see Janes resolve starting to shake as the Termites taunted us. Carl wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders and continued to fire over the trunk of the car with his Beretta.

One of the Termites tried to dodge between two cars and I sent a spray of bullets in his direction and knocked him off his feet. I smiled to myself as I saw blood pooling out under his body. I dropped the smile when I felt an unusual tugging at my jeans. I turned to see Mix was there pulling at me with his tooth hooked into the denim and tearing a new hole.

“What is it boy?”

Mix dropped my pants and started pacing back and forth in front of me. I noticed he was limping and he looked like he was hurt, but I didn’t see any blood. He turned away towards the motel and then back to me, his one good eye looked at me like he was trying to tell me something.

I crawled after Mix as he limped away, leaving behind one of the M16s for Rick and the others to use.

Mix limped straight to the back of the motel and I glanced up at the top floor to our open door. I saw Eugene standing there bouncing a crying Judith up and down, and wondered what Beth was doing. I hoped she wasn’t trying to play at being badass again. I followed Mix to the back of the motel and watched as he started sniffing at the ground by the fire escape ladder. I looked to the top of the fire escape walkway and saw the mesh from the window of the room Beth and I had stayed in, torn and blowing in the breeze.

I had been so caught up firing at the Termites I didn’t even think to check for Anton or Carol. Mix was limping off into the woods. So I grabbed on to my M16 and followed, certain he was trying to track her.

I could see where Beth had run through the woods. She had left a trail of broken branches and crushed leaves and there was even a bit of blood on a couple of branches but it didn’t look like it was from a major wound. I stopped to examine a blood covered stick and then heard a soft whimpering. I followed the sound through the bushes and was confronted with a carnival freak show sight that made my body tremble in fury and disgust.

On the ground I could see a three headed, six legged beast. Anton had his knees in the dirt and his pants around his thighs. Around his moving hips I could see a pair of pale white legs caught together at the feet in jeans. Besides them I could see another pair of slender legs in dirty torn jeans. By the side of Anton’s stubble covered head I could see Beth’s weeping face with a knife pressed to her throat and a thin line of blood running down her neck. On the other side of Beth’s face, pressed against her cheek to cheek was the face of Carol.

The M16 slipped from my hand and I stumbled towards the twisted display, dragging out my Busse. Mix snarled and darted back and forth, looking as if he wanted to tear Anton to shreds as much as I did. I grabbed a hold of Anton by the collar of his shirt and tugged him back and down against my chest as I fell to my knees. I forced my knife to his throat mirroring Carol and examined the state of Beth.

Seeing the blood on her thighs I knew I had got there too late. I wanted to cut off his bloody dick, I wanted to rip out his throat with my teeth and gut him like a fish. It took all of my will to not saw through Anton’s throat at that very moment. Carol still had the knife pressed to Beth’s and her wild eyes told me she was capable of anything.

“What are you doing Carol?” I pleaded trying to keep my voice as steady as possible.

“She’s his now Daryl. She’s his.” Carol replied with a sick smile on her face.

“She doesn’t want to be his. Look at her she’s crying.” I looked to Beth’s dirty and scratched up weeping, red face, and tried not to cry myself.

“She doesn’t know. She doesn’t know he loves her like I love you.” Carol’s crazy eyes darted between Anton’s face and my own.

Anton grunted and groaned against me as I held him firmly in place.

“But you’re hurting her Carol, and she’s like a daughter to you. You don’t want to hurt another of your girls do you?”

Carol started wailing and rocking with Beth. The knife was moving back and forth over Beth’s skin releasing more blood.

“She’s not my daughter, my daughters dead!” Carol shrieked. “She’s going to ruin everything, she’s going to take you away from me!”

“No she’s not Carol, I don’t want her, I want you.” I lied as convincingly as possible.

“He’s lying.” Anton choked. “He wants you to let her go so he can kill me. I helped you remember? I helped you when everyone left you.”

“Shut the fuck up!” I spat the words into his ear and pressed the knife into his throat so it popped against his skin. He grunted as a drop of blood rolled out and then was silent.

“I ain’t lyin’ Carol, I love you, not her. She was nothin’. She was just a bit of fun.”

Carols eyes looked to Beth and then back to me.

“Really?”

“Yeah, she’s not important, so just let her go, and come to me.”

“You’ll be mine?”

“Yeah and you’ll be mine.”

Carol hesitated for a moment, but then she tossed Beth’s body to the side and lunged towards me with her arms open wide.

As soon as she had released Beth I pressed the blade further into Anton’s throat and felt the knife shudder in my hands as it sliced through tissue and cartilage. I tossed his spluttering body to the ground as Carol landed in my arms.

My eyes shifted to Beth who had rolled on to her back and was tugging up her jeans. Mix pawed on to her and licked away the tears and dirt from her face and Beth’s trembling hands clutched on to his dirty white fur. My mind wasn’t there when Carol started kissing me, and my mind wasn’t there when she started tearing at my clothes. My Busse trembled in my hand as I relived the sight of Carol holding Beth down while Anton raped her. The blood dripping from the wound in Beth’s neck, smeared against her white thighs, and all over Anton’s dick, was still glistening red in my mind’s eye. Killing Carol was the last thing I thought of doing when I woke up this morning, but she was too far gone. After what she had done there was nothing I could do to save her.

The clinking of metal brought me out of my thoughts of blood and vengeance to see that Carol was tugging at my belt. I put my hands on top of hers to still her.

“We can’t do it here, she’s watching us.” I said motioning to Beth as she lay there shaking and crying, with only Mix to comfort her. I knew what needed to be done, but my hands were trembling so much I could barely even grip the knife.

Carol glanced over her shoulder towards Beth and then looked back to me.

“We have to kill her you know. She’ll just get in the way.” She murmured in to my ear.

“I know.” I replied looking into Beth’s terrified eyes. I turned my face to Carol’s and looked into the blue eyes of the woman I once loved as if she were my own flesh and blood. “We have to kill her.”

I lifted my Busse into the air and slammed it into Carols back, forcing it between her ribs until it was buried to the hilt. Carols hot blood spat out on to my hand and I watched her eyes as they widened in shock.

Carol let out a whistling gasp and collapsed in my arms. I dropped my Busse to the dirt and then rolled her back so I could look down on her face.

“I’m sorry.” I mumbled, lost for words to say to a woman who was once a dear friend, but was now something else entirely.

Carol was gasping for air and choking on her own blood. As I watched her chest shudder as it struggled to rise and fall, my own chest grew tight with the swelling of fierce emotion. I was angry at her for what she did, I was angry at myself for not helping her sooner. I was angry at the world for making me be the one who had to kill her. I wept tears of rage and sorrow as I felt her life seep out from the back of her shirt and cling to my arm in a warm sticky mess.

She weakly lifted her hand and brushed the hair away from my face using the tips of her ice cold fingers.

“Everything…works out…the way…it’s supposed to.” She gasped.

Carols chest creaked and rattled and then with a final long sigh she went limp in my arms.

I let Carol’s dead weight slip from my hands and roll onto the dirt in front of my knees. I lifted my eyes to Beth who was warily crawling over to me with her eyes flicking back and forth between the still bodies of her attackers.

I opened my arms for her and she wrapped her arms around my waist and buried her head in my lap. I gripped her by the shoulders and held her to me melding her shuddering sobs with my own until we heard the guttural gasps of Anton.

Beth grabbed for my knife and gripping it with two hands she lunged towards him landing with the blade embedded in his skull. She crawled to her knees beside him and yanked the knife back out so she could slam it back down again. She repeated this until his pretty face had crushed into chasms of bone, blood, skin and tissue.

While she took care of Anton I took up Carol’s blade and forced it through the side of her skull. Looking down on her still face, I could make out the hint of a smile on her blood covered lips.

* * *

 

It took me an hour to dig a grave for Carol. I had nothing but my knife and sticks to loosen the dirt and I didn’t want any help from Beth. Beth was the one who had just been raped. She was the one who was a victim of ultimate betrayal by someone she loved and trusted. But she was still there supporting _me_ and telling _me_ it would all be okay.

“I should be taking care of you.” I told her as she rubbed over my sweat soaked flannel, while standing behind me.

“I’m more upset about Carol than Anton.” She replied, looking down on the mound of dirt that covered Carol’s shallow grave.

“That wasn’t Carol.”

“I know.” She let out a deep sigh and then put her chin to my shoulder. “That’s why I’m upset.”

I put my dirty, bloody, nail broken hands to her hand on my other shoulder and turned my face to her cheek and kissed her. The girl was amazing. Even after what Carol had just put her through she was still able to see the person behind the monster.

We stood looking over her grave for a few moments until Mix started growling, alerting us to walkers approaching. I bent to allow Beth to jump on my back and I hooked my arms around her legs and gripped on to the M16 behind my back for extra support. I walked off towards the motel with Beth’s dirty and bloody feet dangling by my side and with Mix by my boots still limping. We left Anton’s mangled corpse to rot in the sun.

* * *

 

When we got back to the motel it was eerily quiet. I jogged to the front hoping that we wouldn’t be faced with the still, dead bodies of our family. Or worse, the walking dead bodies of our family. When we got there the first thing we noticed was the minivans were gone. I stopped and let Beth off my back and gave my tight muscles a stretch. I scanned over the parking lot and then stepped towards the body of the female walker that had been pinned under the bike. I grabbed the vest that lay by her side, gave it a shake and then opened it out for Beth. Beth smiled weakly up at me and then slipped her arms through and adjusted it over her shoulders.

As much as I liked Beth being soft and gentle, she was going to need a bit of toughness to survive in this world, and she did look cute in leather.

I grabbed Beth’s chin between my thumb and forefinger and tipped her face up to kiss her on the lips. Then I made for the gas station where I had last seen everyone, and Beth dashed upstairs to check the rooms.

I paced around the battlefield of the gas station checking out the bodies that lay on the bitumen. Most of the Termites were dead, but a couple were missing, including Gareth. I breathed a sigh of relief when I had checked every fallen body and none of them were our own people. I lost the sense of relief when Mix started growling and a body emerged from behind a fire damaged and bullet ridden car. It stumbled towards me moaning with outstretched fingers grasping at the air. I recognised the blonde hair and slight build of the kid, Jason. He had been shot, judging by the wound in his chest, but no one had put him down before he turned. The plucky kid had wanted to save the world and got himself killed in the process. I stepped forward and ended him with a knife blow to the head, and eased his body to the ground. I pulled out the knife that was still in his sheath and placed it on his lifeless chest and pressed his dead fingers around it. He at least deserved a hero’s honour.

Beth raced over to me where I stood over Jason’s body. She was wearing her boots and carrying the Airborne and Stryker and our bags. She told me the rooms were all empty and everyone’s stuff was gone. She examined the bodies on the ground and I could see her lips move as she counted each one.

“They left us?” She said turning to me.

“Looks like it.”

“Why would they do that?” Her face looked even more distraught now than it did an hour ago.

“They know I got the bike runnin’, and they know you’re safe with me.”

She forced a smile on to her sad face and nodded in agreement.

We made our way back to the garage and put our gear into the saddlebags. I straddled the bike and balanced it while Beth climbed on to the pillion behind me. I pulled out the kicker and gave it a push. It roared to life first try and Beth clutched on to my waist at the shock of the sound and movement. Mix stood at the side of the bike and looked up at us and begged with his one good eye.

“C’mon boy, hop on.” I patted the space on the seat in front of me.

Mix jumped up under my arm, rested his furry butt in between my legs and gave me a lick on the face. I pushed my feet on the ground and rolled the bike down to the road looking in both directions.

“Which way?” Beth called over the noise of the motor.

“To Washington.” I called back.

“Gareth is still alive, and Jason is dead, they may have gone back to Terminus to check on everyone and take Jane home.”

I pulled out my bandanna from the pocket of my jeans and tied it over my face.

“That’s the only way onward.” I called to her nodding my head towards the road. I revved the bike, lifted my feet and turned out on to the road in the direction I nodded. Beth gripped firmly around my waist and pressed her head against my shoulder, as we followed the road to Washington.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Daryl gets a bike, a girl and a dog. I am too good to him.  
> I know NOTHING about motorcycles. The only reason I knew a ‘fatboy’ existed was ‘cause a friend owned one. If the motorcycle stuff is all wrong, please correct me and I’ll fix it up.  
> So this is the end…..
> 
> No not really. I have already planned about another 10 chapters for Part III. Not sure how people will receive it after this ‘finale’ so let’s say when I get to X amount of followers I’ll continue on. (I don't know how many yet. Maybe 2 more, maybe 20)  
> It will still be full of grit, grime and gloom, but I promise no one will rape Beth. There will be some very lovely moments between the pair and we’ll get to see both a softer and more dangerous side of Daryl. Here is the synopsis for Part III:
> 
> “Daryl and Beth are separated from the others on the way to Washington. They find a place among angels, and confront demons from their past”
> 
> Thankyou for all your support and lovely comments xxx


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